System and method for generating probabilistic play analyses

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method may include receiving at least three video clips of a sporting event, where each of the video clips may (i) be simultaneously captured over at least a portion of time, and (ii) include at least one common player wearing an indicia on a jersey that is distinguishing from indicia on other players. Tracking locations of the at least one common player captured in the at least three video clips may be generated by triangulating distances of the common player(s) in the video clips. Statistical information of the common player(s) may be generated from the tracking locations. The common player(s) may be represented on a graphical display. The common player(s) may be controlled by applying at least one of the tracking locations and statistical information of the common player(s).

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/254,384, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATINGPROBABILISTIC PLAY ANALYSES FROM SPORTS VIDEOS”, filed on Jan. 22, 2019,which is hereby incorporated by reference. This application is also acontinuation-in-part of PCT International Patent Application No.PCT/US20/14644, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING PROBABILISTICPLAY ANALYSES FROM SPORTS VIDEOS”, filed Jan. 22, 2020, which claimspriority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/254,384, which arehereby incorporated by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/254,384 is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/934,822, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A HIGHLIGHT REELOF A SPORTING EVENT”, filed Mar. 23, 2018, and claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/619,115, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORGENERATING PROBABILISTIC PLAY ANALYSES FROM SPORTS VIDEOS”, filed Jan.19, 2019, which are hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/934,822 is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/444,098, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCOMMUNICATING VIDEO OF A SPORTING EVENT”, filed Feb. 27, 2017, which isa divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/052,728, entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING A SPORTS VIDEO”, filed Feb. 24, 2016,which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/120,127,entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING A SPORTS VIDEO”, filed Feb. 24,2015, which are hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/934,822 further claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/475,769, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOREDITING VIDEO OF A SPORTING EVENT”, filed Feb. 23, 2017, U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/612,721, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORGENERATING A HIGHLIGHT REEL OF A SPORTING EVENT”, filed Jan. 1, 2018,and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/612,991, entitled “SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR GENERATING A HIGHLIGHT REEL OF A SPORTING EVENT”, filed Jan.2, 2018, which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Sports has a wide range of players, levels, supporters, and fans.Players may range from beginners (e.g., 4 years old and higher) toprofessionals. The levels of sports teams may range from beginnersthrough professionals. Supporters of sports teams and players mayinclude family members, assistants, volunteers, former players, andcoaches. Fans may include family members and people who like the sport,team, or team members.

Coaches and players often find reviewing practice and game video footageuseful in helping players and teams improve their performance. In thecase of an individual player, video footage of the individual player'sactions is beneficial to view so that the individual player can see whathe or she did well and not so well.

With low-funded teams (e.g., non-professional teams), video editors whocan review video footage to identify specific segments related tospecific players is generally not an option due to cost. Moreover, evenif a video editor is willing to work at no or low cost, the amount oftime needed to create video segments for specific players is not alwaysfeasible due to games being long and manually reviewing the footage toidentify the specific players in specific video segments is difficult,especially when there are multiple players who enter and exit videoscenes.

Beyond the obvious use of the video footage to assist players andcoaches in improving skills and teamwork, families and friends of aplayer often like to view the player during a game without having towatch or fast forward through an entire game, but rather be able to seethe player when he or she is “in action.” Additionally, video scrapbooksor gifts for family, such as grandparents who live far away, are oftendesired, but tend to be costly due to tedious editing processes thatcurrently exist. Moreover, for gifted athletes who want to provide videoclips to prospective colleges or professional teams, or scouts ofprofessional teams looking for gifted athletes, creation of qualityvideo segments that meet their respective needs is a time consumingprocess.

For amateur sports, there is a desire to view the players from multipleangles and from unique angles (e.g., from goal viewpoint, overhead,sidelines, home team side, away team side). However, the availability ofcollecting such video footage is not possible for a variety of reasons,and establishing a coordinated control structure for such a videoproduction is generally not financially possible.

Hence, there is a need for a system and process (i) to expediteidentification of players on sports teams in video footage, (ii) tocapture video footage of sport teams from multiple mobile recordingdevices, possibly disparate recording devices, and from differentangles, and (iii) to synthesize and organize video footage, optionallyin real-time, that is cost effective.

One of the challenges for individuals who capture video footage ofsporting events in which their children (or other athletes) are involvedis the difficulty in creating a highlight reel. The highlight reel isgenerally considered a compilation of video footage that include videoclips of the individual and/or team. Heretofore, the ability to extractvideo clips of desired action has been difficult for a variety ofreasons, including not having sufficient footage, having bad angles,missing actual highlights, having to select from many different videoclips, having to identify highlights, having to select from many minutesor hours of video clips, time consumption needed, technical acumenneeded, and so on. When extensive numbers of video clips are taken or avideo of an entire game is recorded, someone has to review the videofootage to determine when “highlights” (e.g., an interesting event, suchas a touchdown or goal, in a sporting event) occurs. There is thereforea need for a system and process that simplifies the ability to identifyand create highlight reels (i.e., video clips of action) of actionsports, especially for team sports, for a user.

In addition to the challenges of collecting, organizing, and producing“highlights” from video captured from the sporting events, the abilityto utilize the video captured for analytical or other purposes ischallenging. Most videos captured from sporting events are captureddiscreetly, which means the videos are generally unrelated to or notsynchronized with other videos that are captured at the same sportingevent, especially at non-professional sporting events. As such, thevideo captured is generally limited to playback and other conventionalvideo editing processes (e.g., generating clips, aggregating clips,identifying players, etc.). However, teams and players may have a desireto use the video for other purposes, such as generating strategies andplanning for future games, analyzing player performance, and otherwise.

1. SUMMARY

To provide for a cost effective and expedited process to gather videosat games from multiple video recording devices, such as mobile deviceswith video recording capabilities (e.g., smart phone), to identifyplayers on sports teams in video footage, character recognitionfunctionality capable of identifying player numbers on jerseys or otheritems (e.g., vehicles) that are visible within video footage may beutilized to identify players and flag or otherwise identify videofootage. By using character or other identifier recognition, anautomated video editor to generate video footage clips with one or morespecific players within video content of a video may be enabled. In oneembodiment, a real-time process may be used to process the video contentthat is being captured. Alternatively, a post-processing process may beutilized. As a player's number may be visible and non-visible during aparticular segment during which the player is still in the scene (e.g.,when the player turns sideways or backwards to the camera), an algorithmto specify tracking rules or a tracking system may be used to track theplayer's head and/or other features so that video clips in which theplayer is in the video may be identified.

In capturing the video, and in one embodiment, a mobile app may beavailable for users who attend sporting events to download to a mobiledevice. The mobile app may enable video to be captured and uploaded. Inusing the mobile app, an actual and/or relative timestamp may be appliedto video content captured by users at a sporting event, thereby enablingthe video content captured by multiple users to be synchronized. Bymultiple users, such as family members, team staff, or otherwise, thevideo content may be captured at multiple angles and used for editingpurposes.

In an embodiment, a system for processing video of a sporting event mayinclude an input/output unit configured to communicate over acommunications network and receive image data, a storage unit configuredto store image data captured by multiple users of a single event, and aprocessing unit in communication with the input/output unit and storageunit. The processing unit may be configured to receive image data beingcaptured real-time from an electronic device. The image data may beportions of complete image data of unknown length while being capturedby the electronic device. The image data portions may be processed toidentify at least one unique identifier associated with a player in thesporting event. Successive video segments may be stitched together. Thereceiving, processing, and stitching of the image data may be repeateduntil an end of video identifier is received. The completed stitchedvideo may be stored in the storage unit for processing.

One embodiment of a method for processing video of a sporting event mayinclude receiving image data being captured real-time from an electronicdevice. The image data may be portions of complete image data of unknownlength while being captured by the electronic device. The image dataportions may be processed to identify at least one unique identifierassociated with a player in the sporting event. Successive videosegments may be stitched together. The receiving, processing, andstitching of the image data may be repeated until an end of videoidentifier is received. The completed stitched video may be stored forprocessing.

In one embodiment, the system may enable a user to enter a particularplayer number and the system may identify all video frames and/orsegments in which the player wearing that number and optionally color ofthe uniform of the player appears so that the user may step to thosevideo frames and/or segments. If there are multiple, continuous framesin which the player wearing the number is identified, the system mayrecord the first frame of each of the continuous frames so that the usercan quickly step through each different scene. For example, in the caseof football, each line-up in which a player participates may beidentified. If a sport, such as soccer, is such that the player's numbertends to be visible and non-visible during a play simply because of thenature of the sport, then the system may use a tracking system toidentify when the player (not the player's number) is visible in a videoclip, thereby identifying entire segments during which a player is partof the action. In one embodiment, an algorithm may be utilized to keeprecording for a certain number of frames/seconds between identificationsof a player.

In one aspect, in response to identifying a particular number on auniform of a player, a notification may be generated and sent to one ormore mobile devices participating in a group at a sporting event toalert fans of action involving one or more players. If a mobile app thatoperates as a social network, for example, is being used by fans at agame, then each of the fans using the app may set search criteria sothat in the event of another fan at the game capturing video contentwith that search criteria, a notification may be sent to the fan whosent the search criteria and be able to download that video content toview the video content that matched the search criteria. In oneembodiment, the search criteria may include player number, team nameand/or uniform colors, action type, video capture location (e.g., hometeam side, visitor team side, end zone, yard line, etc.).

One embodiment of a system for processing video of a sporting event mayinclude an input/output unit configured to communicate over acommunications network and receive image data. A storage unit may beconfigured to store image data captured by a plurality of users of asingle event. A processing unit may be in communication with theinput/output unit and the storage unit. The processing unit may beconfigured to receive image data being captured real time from anelectronic device, the image data being portions of complete image dataof unknown length while being captured by the electronic device. Theimage data portions may be processed to identify at least one uniqueidentifier associated with a player in the sporting event. Successivevideo segments may be stitched together. The receiving, processing, andstitching of the image data may be repeated until an end of videoidentifier is received. The completed stitched video may be stored inthe storage unit for processing.

One method for creating a sports video may include receiving video of asporting event inclusive of players with unique identifiers on theirrespective uniforms. At least one unique identifier of the players inthe video may be identified. Video segments may be defined from thevideo inclusive of at least one unique identifier. Video segmentsinclusive of at least one unique identifier may be caused to beindividually available for replay.

One method for generating video content may include receiving multiplevideo content segments of a sporting event from video capture devices,the video capture devices operating to crowdsourced video content. Aplayer in one or more of the video content segments may be identified.At least a portion of video content inclusive of the player may beextracted from the one or more video content segments with the player,and be available for viewing by a user.

One method for sharing video of a sports event may include receiving, bya processing unit via a communications network, a request inclusive ofat least one search parameter from a video capture device. Video contentbeing received by a plurality of video capture devices at the sportsevent may be processed to identify video content from any of the videocapture devices at the sports event inclusive of the at least one searchparameter. Responsive to identifying video content inclusive of the atleast one search parameter, video content may be communicated by theprocessing unit via the communications network to the video capturedevice.

To simplify the creating of a highlight video or highlight reel (i.e.,select video clips of individual players or multiple players of a team),different types of highlight videos may be created, including a personalhighlight video and a team highlight video. For a personal highlightvideo, a highlight video may be created that features a particularplayer. For a team highlight video, a highlight video may be createdthat includes selected or all of the players within the video (i.e.,within at least one video clip that is included within an entire video).Creation of the highlight videos may be performed through use of acomputer-implemented algorithm that is automated, at least to a certainextent.

In selecting the video clips, different levels of priorities may beassigned to video clips. In an embodiment, four levels of priority maybe assigned to video clips based on different factors of userinteraction and/or content. An algorithm may populate a highlight videofor a preselected amount of time or an amount of time of the aggregatedselected videos. For a team video, a highlight video may be formed inthe same or similar manner as the individual highlight video, but mayadditionally be configured to include each of the players of the team(or a select list of players, such as only those who played orstarters).

One embodiment of identifying video to set as a highlight may includeautomatically identifying a particular action of a referee, umpire,player, coach, fans, or anyone else. The action may be sport specific,but not an action that is part of playing a sport itself. For example,in a football game, the action may be made by the referee who moves hisor her arms into a certain machine-identifiable position. For a carrace, image processing may be used to identify that a flagman raised ayellow or checkered flag. In the case of a player, an identification ofcrossing a goal line and/or “spiking” a football may also be used as anidentifying action to signify a touchdown, but such an action is not anaction of playing the sport, just in the celebration of an action havingbeen successfully completed. Still yet, if fans are captured in a videoand they clap, stand in unison with cheering, or perform some otherhighlight associated action, then a highlight may be identified. As isfurther described herein, an identification of a highlight point in avideo clip or segment may define a point around which a predetermined orrequested buffer may be established before and after the point. As anexample, in the event that the referee raises his or her hands tosignify a touchdown, a buffer may be started a certain amount of time(e.g., 5 seconds) prior to the touchdown and certain amount of time,which may be the same or different than the time prior to the touchdown.

Video of sporting events may be processed to produce three-dimensional(3D) representations (e.g., X's and O's) of players captured in thevideo by utilizing video capture of players from at least threedifferent cameras. In doing so, the videos from the three differentangles may be synchronized utilizing relative (e.g., game time) oractual time. The representations and position tracking of the playersmay be used in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to (i)creating plays, (ii) recruiting/drafting players, and (iii) gaming. Forexample, the ability to create plays or “what-if scenarios” may begenerated by coaches, for example, by selecting player and/or teamtracking of opponents from a database and matching a coach's player(s)or an entire team from the database to run various scenarios against oneanother. A user, such as a coach, may run a scenario generator that isselectable from a coach's playbook and/or utilize statistics frommultiple historical videos in which player(s) were tracked. In anotherexample, recruiting and drafting of players may be enhanced by a user byevaluating performance from previous games, and optionally insertingthose performance references into new game situations (e.g., matchingoffensive player against a defensive player). As another example, a usermay create a gaming scenario by capturing a player, such as him orherself, and insert the player's performance into a game (e.g., virtualmatchup against another player or into a game situation). A statisticalanalysis may be performed to produce gameplay (e.g., penalty shots in asoccer game). The statistical analysis may include analyzing andproducing statistics from historical games so that the player'sstrengths and weaknesses may be applied to a virtual player in a videogame or other use, such as those described above. Other applications oftracking in generating statistics from videos captured using 3Dtracking, for example, may be utilized, as well.

One embodiment of a computer-implemented method may include receiving atleast three video clips of a sporting event, where each of the videoclips may (i) be simultaneously captured over at least a portion oftime, and (ii) include at least one common player wearing an indicia ona jersey that is distinguishing from indicia on other players. Trackinglocations of the at least one common player captured in the at leastthree video clips may be generated by triangulating distances of thecommon player(s) in the video clips. Statistical information of thecommon player(s) may be generated from the tracking locations. Thecommon player(s) may be represented on a graphical display. The commonplayer(s) may be controlled by applying at least one of the trackinglocations and statistical information of the common player(s).

2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described indetail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which areincorporated by reference herein and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an illustrative scene inclusive of a sportsplaying field;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a network environment in which crowdsourced video of a sporting event is captured and processed;

FIG. 3 is an image of an illustrative scene in which a player, in thiscase a soccer player, is shown to be running on a playing field;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an illustrative network environment shownto include a video capture device, such as a smartphone, beingconfigured with a mobile app that enables a user of the video capturedevice to capture video content, and provide for extracting particularvideo content desired by the user;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an illustrative sports video indicative ofvideo segments that include a particular player wearing a particularplayer number;

FIG. 6A is an illustration of three videos A, B, and C that werecaptured from three different video cameras, camera A, camera B, andcamera C;

FIG. 6B is an illustration of an extracted video shown to include videosegments B1, A2, and B3, which were originally in videos A and B of FIG.6A;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of illustrative app modules that may beexecuted on a mobile device;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of illustrative application modules that maybe executed on a server;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for processing andcreating an extracted video with particular search parameters;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for crowdsourcingvideo content;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process used to create avideo from video segments;

FIGS. 12A and 12B is an illustration of a video capture device, such asa smartphone, that includes an electronic display to be executing anapplication for capturing and creating extracted video based on one ormore search parameters;

FIG. 13 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that providesfor selecting a particular action, player, play type, and/or otherparameters from a user's or crowd sourced video of a sporting event;

FIG. 14A is an illustration of a video capture device or otherelectronic device that may be configured to display an illustrativegraphical user interface inclusive of videos captured by a spectator andavailable for instant replay;

FIG. 14B is an illustration of the video recording device displaying auser interface, where the user has selectably changed the view from an“instant replay” view to a “live streaming” view by selecting the videofeed type soft-button; and

FIG. 14C is an illustration of the video recording device presentinguser interface, where the user interface includes a video display regionfor video content to be displayed.

FIG. 15 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface for a coach tosign-up and select a roster for the team;

FIG. 16 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface for a playerto sign-up and select or submit player information, including jerseynumber and team name via respective user interface input elements;

FIG. 17 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface for a fan orother user to sign up and select player(s) to follow;

FIG. 18A is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface inclusive ofillustrative video feeds are shown to enable a user to view one or morevideos of a player captured during a sporting event;

FIG. 18B is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface inclusive ofthe video feeds of FIG. 18A;

FIG. 19 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that enables auser to assign one or more hashtags to a video segment or clip;

FIGS. 20A-20F are screen shots of an illustrative user interface isshown to enable a user to create an event, such as a soccer game;

FIGS. 21A-21C are screenshots of an illustrative user interface that mayprovide for a user to browse content collected at one or more events byselecting an “athletes” soft-button, “videos” soft-button, and“hashtags” soft-button;

FIGS. 22A-22C are screenshots of user interfaces that may provide forsearching for videos;

FIG. 23 is a user interface that may provide for a video editingenvironment in which video clips taken by different users at differentangles may be listed along a first axis and time of the video clips maybe along a second axis;

FIG. 24 is an illustration of an illustrative user interface thatprovides instructions for a user to control functionality of the videoediting environment;

FIG. 25 is an illustration of an illustrative user interface forenabling a user to download video clips or share the video clips onsocial media;

FIG. 26 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that may bedisplayed in response to the user using the user interface to keep avideo clip;

FIG. 27 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that may bedisplayed in response to the user using the user interface to discard avideo clip;

FIG. 28 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that may bedisplayed after capturing a video clip;

FIG. 29 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface on which awindow or page may be displayed to enable a user to reassign a jerseynumber to a selected video clip;

FIG. 30 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that enablesthe user to edit a video clip;

FIG. 31 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface for viewing,editing, and selecting videos;

FIG. 32 is a user interface for selecting whether to produce a “PlayerAutoReel” or a “Team AutoReel;”

FIG. 33 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that listsselectable teams, in this case sports teams, on which a user or anassociate of a user may participate;

FIG. 34 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface showing alisting of games from which the user may select using selectionsoft-buttons;

FIG. 35 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface inclusive ofvideo clips from the selected game(s) from FIG. 34 ;

FIG. 36 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface that lists aset of highlight videos;

FIG. 37 is a screenshot of an illustrative user interface inclusive ofvideo clips;

FIG. 38 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for generating ahighlight video of an event from video clips;

FIG. 39 is an illustration of an illustrative scene inclusive of asports playing field in which multiple video recording devices; and

FIG. 40 is a block diagram of a set of software modules that may beutilized in tracking and analyzing players captured by video recordingdevices.

3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With regard to FIG. 1 , an illustration of an illustrative scene 100inclusive of a sports playing field 102 is shown. The sports playingfield 102 includes two teams of players 104 a and 104 b (collectively104) playing thereon. As understood in the art, players of sports teamstypically wear jerseys or uniforms inclusive of numbers and/or otheridentifiers. As shown, the players of the two teams 104 are matched upagainst one another. It should be understood that other aspects includevideo recording a team practice, where players from only a single teamare recorded while playing on the sports playing field 102. As istypically the case, fans, supporters, spectators, team management, orotherwise record video of the teams who are playing. As shown, videorecording devices 106 a-106 n (collectively 106) that are positioned atdifferent angles around the field 102 may be used to capture or recordvideo of the teams 104 during a game. The video capture devices 106 maybe the same or disparate mobile devices, such a smart phones, tablets,video cameras (e.g., GoPros®), or any other video capture device thatmay be networked or non-networked, but be capable of uploading videocontent in any manner, as understood in the art. Video recording devices106 c and 106 n may be respectively mounted to goalposts 108 at a north(N) end and south (S) end of the sports playing field 102.

With regard to FIG. 2 , an illustration of a network environment 200 inwhich crowd sourced video or user generated content of a sporting eventis captured and processed is shown. The network environment 200 includesthe video capture devices 106 that may capture raw video content orvideo 202 a-202 n (collectively 202), and communicate the raw videocontent 202 via a communications network 204 (e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular,and/or Internet) to a server 206. Because mobile devices are able tocapture data in high-resolution, the size of video or video data filesthese days can be quite large (e.g., several megabytes). As a result,the amount of time and bandwidth needed to upload the video data filescan be considerable. Rather than waiting for a user to complete a video,which is unknown in size before completed, so as to operate in a morereal-time basis, one embodiment of an app being executed by the videocapture devices 106 may include communicating the captured video 202 ona periodic (e.g., every 5 or 10 seconds) or aperiodic basis (e.g.,responsive to an event occurring), but prior to completion of recordingof an entire video.

As an example, a 2-minute video 202 n′ is shown to be captured andstored in video capture device 106 n. In one embodiment, while capturingthe video 202 n′, short (e.g., 10-second) video segments 202 n″ (i.e.,portions of a complete video of unknown length while being captured) maybe communicated via the network 204 to the server 206. The server 206may, in one embodiment, process the video segments 202 n″ as received.In an alternative embodiment, rather than uploading the video 202 n′ ina real-time manner, app on the video capture device 106 n may beconfigured to capture the entire video 202 n′ and send multiple, shortvideo segments 202 n″, such as 10-seconds (10 s), via the communicationsnetwork 204 to server 206. The server 206 may be configured to receivethe video segments 202 n″ and to “stitch” the video segments 202 n″ intothe full-length video 202 n′. In one embodiment, an end video code oridentifier may be communicated with the last video segment thatcompletes a full video so that the server 206 may determine that thevideo is complete and store the completed video. In addition toproviding a more real-time process, but sending the video segments 202n″ while recording, other processing and communications may be performedduring the recording and communication processes.

Moreover, because the video content that is captured may behigh-resolution (e.g., 1080p), the amount of extra data that is to besent as compared to a lower resolution, such as 640p or 720p, issignificant, especially for longer videos. In the event that theapplication is capturing humans, which do not move relatively fast overa 1-second timeframe, one aspect may capture the video content at ahigher resolution, but communicate the content at a lower resolution,thereby provide video quality that is acceptable to view, but utilizeslower bandwidth, takes less time to communicate, and consumes lessmemory at the server and when viewed on other devices after editing.However, because an image processing algorithm(s) performed by theserver may have improved performance with higher resolution, especiallyfor number and color identification, reducing the resolution may alsoreduce performance of the image process. To provide for improvedperformance of the image processing algorithm(s) while simultaneouslyaccommodating the communication and memory capacity performance, oneembodiment provides for communicating one or more frames per second atthe high-resolution or key frames 202 n″, and video 202 n″ at a lowerresolution. In one aspect, the video capture devices 106 may beconfigured to communicate every 12th frame (e.g., one per ½ second ifframe capture rate is 24 frames per second) as high-resolution (e.g.,1080p) images 202 n′″, and the video 202 n″ at lower resolution. In theevent that the sport being imaged is a sport that players move fasterthan running, such as skiing, skating (e.g., hockey), car racing, etc.,higher frame rates (e.g., 4 high-resolution frames per second or every 6frames if the video capture rate is 24 or 25 frames per second) of thehigh-resolution frames 202 n′″ may be communicated along with the lowerresolution video 202 n″. If every 12th frame 202 n′″ is ahigh-resolution frame and the frame capture rate is 24 frames persecond, then a 10-second video includes 20 high-resolution frames 202n′″. The 20 high-resolution frames 202 n′″ may be included in the videosegments 202 n″ being communicated or separate from the video segments202 n″. It should be understood that other video capture rates andindividual high-resolution image rates may be utilized based on avariety of factors, including type of sport, amount of communicationbandwidth, storage capacity, or otherwise.

The server 206 may be configured to identify video segments that complywith search parameters to form an extracted video 208 as desired byusers of the video capture devices 106 or other users, such as familymembers of players of sports teams. The extracted video 208 may includevideo content that complies with input search parameter(s) by a userthat includes a player identifier of a sports team. In one embodiment,the server 206 may be configured to identify a player wearing aparticular number on his or her jersey, and extract video content orvideo segments inclusive of the jersey with the particular number. Inone aspect, the server 206 may be configured to extract video with aplayer having certain jersey colors, such as blue with white writing,such as numbers. The server 206 may also be configured to extract videothat matches a particular action identifiable by a user generated and/orautomatically generated tag associated with video content. As shown, alive stream 210 may be communicated from the server to one or more ofthe video capture devices 106 that request to receive video from othersof the video capture devices 106, as further described with regard toFIGS. 14A-14C.

With regard to FIG. 3 , an image of an illustrative scene 300 in which aplayer 302, in this case a soccer player, is shown to be running on aplaying field. The player 302 has an identifier 304, in this case number“10,” on his uniform that has dark writing on a light uniform. Theplayer 302 is shown to be dribbling a soccer ball 306, and being chasedby players 308 on another team, generally wearing different coloruniforms, trying to take the soccer ball 306 from the player 302. Aswill be described further herein, a system may be configured to (1)identify a player wearing a particular identifier, such as number “10,”and (2) being in “the action,” such as being near a ball (e.g.,football, soccer ball, basketball), or other sports item. Rather thanbeing automatically identified, a crowd edited process for identifyingaction(s) by players may be performed in a semi-automated or manualmanner, as further described herein.

With regard to FIG. 4 , an illustration of an illustrative networkenvironment 400 is shown to include a video capture device 402 a, suchas a smartphone, being configured with a mobile app that enables a userof the video capture device 402 a to capture video content, and have theability to extract or cause to extract particular video content desiredby the user. The video capture device 402 may include an electronicdisplay 404 on which user interface 406 may be displayed. The userinterface 406 is shown to include an image 407 of a player on a playingfield, for example. Control buttons 408 a, 408 b, and 408 c(collectively 408) are shown to enable the user to take a video, share avideo, and create or request a composite or extracted video,respectively. A composite video is video formed of one or more videoclips or segments (or references to timestamps within one or more videoclips or segments) that combined form a video that may be viewed by auser. The input video that the device 402 a extracts content from may bein various forms, including real-time video of the event, as well asslow motion or fast motion video of the event. The composite video maybe created such that one or more of the video clips or segments arearranged to replay in real time, slow motion, and/or fast motion,regardless of the input form. This functionality may be fixed in thecomposite video and/or enabled via pointers that are referenced duringreplay to replay the video at the desired speed. It should be understoodthat additional and/or alternative control elements 408 may be availablevia the mobile app being executed by the video capture device 402 a, aswell. As understood in the art, the app may be downloaded from an appstore or other network location.

The video capture device 402 a may be configured to communicate video410 (i.e., video content in a digital data format) and timestamps 412representative of times that the video 410 is captured. The video 410may be in the form of video clips (e.g., less than 2 minutes in lengthor be a full, continuous video of an entire sporting event). In oneembodiment, an app on the video capture device 402 a may be configuredto record actual times or relative times at which video is captured, andthose times may be associated with the video 410. The video 410 andtimestamps 412 may be communicated via a communications network 414 to aserver 416. The server 416 may include a processing unit 418, which mayinclude one or more computer processors, including general processor(s),image processor(s), signal processor(s), etc., that execute software420. The processing unit 418 may be in communication with a memory unit422, input/output (I/O) unit 424, and storage unit 426 on which one ormore data repositories 428 a-428 n (collectively 428) may be stored. Thevideo 410 and timestamps 412 may be received by the processing unit 418,and processed thereby to generate an extracted video 430 based onparameters, such as player identifier, action type, or any otherparameter, as desired by a user of the video capture device 402 a orotherwise. The video 410 and timestamps 412 may be stored in the datarepositories 428 by the processing unit 418, and the extracted video 430may be communicated via the I/O unit 424 to the video capture device 402a for display thereon.

In one embodiment, the software 420 may be configured to store video 410in the data repositories 428 in a manner that the video operates asreference video for the extracted video 430. That is, rather than makingcopies of the video 410 stored in the data repositories 428 forindividual users, the video 410 may be referenced using computerpointers or indices, as understood in the art, to refer to a memorylocation or timestamp in the source video so that duplicate copies ofthe video 410 are not needed. The extracted video 430 may be copies ofsubsections of the video 410 or entire video that is accompanied withpointers or timestamps (not shown) to point to sections of the videothat meet criteria of the user who receives the extracted video 430.Rather than communicating copies of video in file form, the video may bestreamed to the video capture 402 a.

In one embodiment, additional video capture devices 402 may beconfigured to capture video in the same or similar manner as the videocapture device 402 a, and the server 416 may be configured to receiveand process video captured by multiple video capture devices to generatea crowd sourced video, where the crowd sourced video may include videoclips or content segments from different angles at a sporting event. Thecrowd sourced video may be a single video file inclusive of video clipsavailable from the crowd sourced video clips or video clips that matchsearch parameter(s), as further described herein. In one embodiment, inaddition to communicating video 410 and timestamps 412, additionalinformation, such as geographic location or identifier of a field orsporting event may be generated and communicated by the video capturedevice 402 a to the server 416, so that multiple video capture devices402 that are recording video at the same event may be associated andstored with one another for processing by the server 416. For example,the app may be configured to enable the user to create or select a nameof a sporting event at a particular geographic location that isoccurring, such as Norwood Mustangs versus Needham Rockets at NorwoodHigh School Field, and that information may be uploaded, with or withoutvideo and timestamp information, to a server so that other users who arealso at the same game, such as a high school football game, may be ableto select the name of the event from a selectable list of games beingplayed at a geographic location given that multiple games are oftenplayed at a single park or field, for example.

As is further described herein, video or video clips 410 may becollected by multiple users and video capture devices 402. The videoclips 410 may be stored by the server 416 that enables the users toaccess the video clips 410 for producing crowd edited video. In crowdediting, the video clips 430 may be communicated to or otherwiseaccessed by the users to view and associate hashtags 432 or otheridentifiers that enable users to perform more accurate searching andmore easily produce composite videos. In an alternative embodiment, theserver 416 may be configured to semi-automatically or automatically tagvideo clips with hashtags.

With regard to FIG. 5 , an illustration of an illustrative video 500 isshown. The video 500 is captured from camera A, and includes a number ofvideo segments, A1, A2, and A3, in which a player wearing the number “7”on his or her jersey, which has a color scheme that may optionally beused for identification purposes, is captured. Video segment A1 is 8seconds long and extends between timestamps T1 and T2. Video segment A2is 12 seconds long and extends between timestamps T3 and T4. Videosegment A3 is 4 seconds long and extends between timestamps T5 and T6.The video segments between timestamps T2 and T3, and T4 and T5 may bedetermined to not include video footage of the player wearing number “7”on his or her uniform. As will be described further herein, the user maydesire to have a video created that includes only video segments A1, A2,and A3, thereby shortening his or her review time of, or focusing on,all the plays in which player wearing number “7” was captured. Anextracted video (not shown) that includes only the video segments A1,A2, and A3 may be created. In one embodiment, short fade-to-black orother transition video segments may be displayed between video segmentsA1, A2, and A3. Alternatively, pauses between video segments A1, A2, andA3 may be set to enable a user to selectively continue watching or not.

With regard to FIG. 6A, an illustration of three videos A, B, and C thatwere captured from three different video cameras, camera A, camera B,and camera C, are shown. In each of the videos, video segments includinga player wearing jersey number “7” were captured. In video A, videosegments A1, A2, and A3 include a player wearing jersey number “7.” Invideo B, video segments B1, B2, and B3 include content with the playerwearing jersey number “7,” and in video C, video segments C1, C2, and C3include video content with player number “7.” In one embodiment, thevideos 600 may be communicated to a central location, such as a server,so that a crowd sourced video can be produced. In another embodiment,the crowd sourced video may include the longest, best, most actionfilled, or simply include the player wearing jersey number “7.” Tagsapplied to the videos 600 may be used in identifying video clips andassembling an aggregated or extracted video or presenting the identifiedvideo clips.

With regard to FIG. 6B, an extracted video 602 is shown to include videosegments B1, A2, and B3, which were originally in videos A and B of FIG.6A. Each of the video segments B1, A2, and B3 were determined to be thelongest video segments and/or least shaking, most in focus, etc. inwhich the player with identifier number “7” on his or her uniform wascaptured in the three videos of FIG. 6A. Between video segments B1, A2,and B3, transition video segments TR1, TR2, and TR3, are shown. Thesetransition video segments may be utilized to make the video moreaesthetically pleasing to a viewer. The transition segments TR1, TR2,and TR3 may be fade-to-black or any other video transition segment, asunderstood in the art. In one embodiment, the video segments B1, A2, andB3 or video segments in which the player is carrying or near the ball,basket, goal, or any other location on a sports field, as furtherdescribed herein.

With regard to FIG. 7 , a block diagram of modules 700 of a mobiledevice app is shown. The modules may be executed by a processor of themobile device, such as a smartphone, and may be utilized to capturevideo, communicate video, process video, and perform a variety of otherfunctions for a user of the mobile device. In this instance, the mobiledevice operates as a video capture device utilizing the mobile app. Inan alternative embodiment, the mobile device simply uses a conventionalvideo capture application, and the video captured may be communicated toa server for processing thereat. It should be understood that the mobileapp may be resident or not resident (e.g., cloud based) on the mobiledevice.

The module 700 may include a user interface module 702 that provides theuser with interactive functionality via a touchscreen or other userinterface on a mobile device, as understood in the art. The userinterface module 702 may operate as a conventional application that, inthis case, enables video capturing, video management, and videoprocessing or establishing search parameters or criteria for videoprocessing to be performed. For example, the user interface module 702may provide a user interface element that enables the user to select anumber of a player on a particular team along with a minimum amount oftime for the player to be in a scene or performing a particular type ofplay (e.g., batting). The module 702 may also provide for a user toreview video clips and assign one or more tags to the video clips.

A video capture module 704 may be configured to enable the user tocapture video utilizing the app. In one embodiment, rather than the appproviding the video capture capability, the app may utilize a standardvideo capture application on a mobile device, and allow the user toaccess or import the video that was captured on the mobile device.

A video upload module 706 may be configured to enable a user to uploadvideo that was captured on the mobile device. The video upload module706 may enable the user to select some or all of the video that the usercaptured during a game. In operation, the video upload module 706 may beconfigured to upload in small (e.g., 5 or 10 second increments) as thevideo is being captured, as previously described with regard to FIG. 2 ,so that the video upload process can be performed in a substantiallyreal-time basis. As previously described, by uploading the video as itis being captured, the mobile device can perform other communicationtasks between the uploads of the video and a server may process thevideo segments as received. In an alternative embodiment, the video(e.g., 2-minutes) may be fully captured and sent in smaller segments(e.g., 10 second segments). A selectable setting may be set by a user ofthe mobile device for how the video is to be uploaded. By uploadingvideo content in short segments or segment fragments (e.g., 5 or 10second segments), the mobile device may be able to perform additionalcommunications operations between uploads. Moreover, because somecommunications networks limit the length of video uploads, sendingportions of the video may allow for a video that exceeds network lengthor size limits to be uploaded. The module 706 may apply tags or otheridentifiers to the video segments to indicate whether a video segmentbeing uploaded is the start of a new video, continuation of previousvideo segment(s), or last video segment. Moreover, the video segmentsmay be encrypted or otherwise encoded to limit the ability for video tobe intercepted and accessed by someone not authorized to view the video.

As previously described, the video may be high-resolution video (e.g.,1080p), which takes a lot of bandwidth, power, time, and resources toupload from a mobile device and process using image processing. As aresult, the module 706 may be configured to upload the video in a lowerresolution, such as 640p or 720p. Since image processing by a server toidentify certain features in a video may be improved by using higherresolution, the module 706 may be configured to have one frameperiodically or periodically be high-resolution or extract key frames orsequence of images and communicated separate from a lower resolutionvideo derived from the high-resolution video. In one embodiment, a blurrating of a high-resolution image frame may be determined by measuringstraightness of a straight line or other measurement technique and, ifthe blur rating is below a threshold, send the high-resolution imageframe, otherwise, not send the high-resolution image frame and continuetesting successive image frames until one passes before sending. Themodule 706 may determine or be set to keep a frame high-resolution orsend separate still images with high-resolution based on a sport oraction being recorded. As an example, every 12th frame (if frame rate is25 frames per second) may be communicated along with or within a videobeing sent at a lower resolution (e.g., 720p), thereby enabling imageprocessing to be performed on the high-resolution frames. In sending thehigh-resolution frames, an indicator, such as a timestamp, thatcorresponds to a frame in the lower resolution video, may be provided toenable processing or tagging of the lower resolution video based onidentification of content in the high-resolution images.

In one embodiment, the video upload module 706 may enable to user toapply a name, geographic location, and/or other indicia to be inassociation with the video, thereby enabling the user and/or server toidentify the location, game, or any other information at a later pointin time. The information may be established prior to the uploadingprocess, as further described herein. In one embodiment, theidentification information may be utilized to crowdsource the video withanother video that was captured at the same sporting event. If the userelects to participate in a temporary (e.g., for the game) or longer term(e.g., for the season of a team) social media environment, the videoupload module may operate to stream data being recorded to a server forreal-time processing and/or distribution to other users in the socialmedia environment (e.g., other users at the game).

A video manager 708 may enable the user to review one more video, storethe videos in a particular fashion, identify the videos throughtimestamps, categories, locations, or any other organizationaltechnique, as understood in the art. The video manager 708 may also beconfigured to identify and store information identified in the video ina real-time or post processing manner so that the parameters may becommunicated to the server for processing. In an alternative manner, theprocessing may be performed by the server.

A composite video request module 710 may be configured to enable a userto request a composite or extracted video. The module 710 may provide auser with parameter settings that the user may select and/or set tocause a composite video to be created inclusive of matching orconforming content using those parameters. For example, the module 710may enable the user to select a particular identifier of a player, aparticular action by the player, a particular distance from a ball, aminimum amount of time in a video clip, and so forth. Measurements ofdistance may be made by using a standard sized object, such as a ball,to determine scale and distance of a player to an object.

A player request module 712 may enable the user to request a player byan identifier on the player's jersey. The module 712 may be incorporatedinto or be separate from the module 710.

An extract video module 714 may be configured to utilize the inputsearch parameters selected by the user, and utilize image processing to(i) identify video segments within which content that satisfies theparameters or criteria are met, and (ii) set timestamps, pointers, orother indices at the start and end of video segments identified asmeeting the parameters. In an alternative embodiment, rather thansetting timestamps, pointers, or other indices, video segments may becopied and stored separate from the raw video, and used in creating andextracted video inclusive of one or more video segments in which contentsatisfies parameters set by the user.

A share video module 716 may be configured to enable a user to sharevideo, raw video and/or extracted video, that he or she captured withother users. In one embodiment, the video may be shared with a limitedgroup, such as friends, family, or other users at a particular sportingevent. Alternatively, the share video module 716 may enable the user toshare video in a public forum. In sharing the video, the module 716 maycommunicate the video to a server for further distribution. If the userhas agreed to share video in a manner that enables the video to beprocessed and used as a crowd sourced video for editing purposes, thenshare video module 716 may communicate a portion or all of the video toa server. If the mobile device app is configured to perform certaintypes of processing, then the video that is shared by module 716 may bein video segments that meet particular criteria being requested by otherusers or an administrator. Still yet, the share video module 716 may beconfigured to work with the video upload module 706 in sharing video inreal-time or other sharing arrangement(s).

A social media interface module 718 may enable the user to upload someor all of the video that the user has captured to social media (e.g.,user account on FaceBook®). The module 718 may be configured to simplyenable the user to select a social media account, and the module 718 mayupload desired video or any other information to the social mediaaccount for posting thereon. The social media interface module 718 maybe configured to manage social media accounts. In one embodiment, thesocial media interface module 718 may be configured to manage temporarysocial media network events, where a temporary social media networkevent may be a social media network setup on a per game or per seasonbasis.

A select roster module 720 may enable a user, such as a coach, to selecta roster of players on a team to define player positions on the team.The players on the roster may be assigned player numbers that are to beon their respective uniforms. The roster may enable users to more easilyselect players by users who are following a team.

An apply hashtags module 722 may be configured to automatically,semi-automatically, or manually enable a user to apply one or morehashtags to a video content segment or clip. In applying the hashtags,video content segments may be provided to the user after capturing thevideo clips and prior to communicating the video clips to a networkedserver or provided by the networked server for tagging by user(s), asfurther described herein. The module 722 may provide the user withsoft-buttons, for example, for the user to select to identify action(s)and/or object(s) within the video content segment(s).

It can be appreciated that the novel concepts disclosed herein provide aseemingly infinite source of video segments from an event, for thecreation of custom and/or unique composite videos or other media of theevent. In this regard, the mobile device may include a module forcreating a non-fungible token (NFT Module 724) with respect to the mediaof the event. The mobile or any client device generally presentsinterfaces for user interaction with the application/service, asdiscussed herein. In one embodiment, the interface(s) presented includeone or more form elements for the user to initiate tokenization of mediacaptured at the event using the methods and systems disclosed herein,such as the video segments and/or composite videos thereof. The formelement(s) may be, for example, a drop down menu, button, etc. that whenselected executes the NFT Module 724. The media may be tokenized using adistributed ledger, such as Ethereum. In this regard, the NFT Module 724may interface (directly or indirectly) with the distributed ledgersystem and/or a service provider/marketplace for the creation of an NFTof the media. This may be accomplished in a variety of ways. Forexample, the mobile application and more specifically the NFT module 724may be linked (directly or indirectly via one or more servers) to theuser's block chain/marketplace wallet. Alternatively, the user may berequired to provide credentials for access to the wallet at the time ofNFT creation. Once the accounts are linked and the NFT module 724executed, the device preferably displays an interface that allows usersto select media to be uploaded to the NFT creation service. The media,such as the video segment and/or composite video thereof, may be givenunique traits by the creator of the NFT. In this regard, the system mayprovide an interface for the user to specify the unique trait or traitsor provide other instructions for the creation of the NFT, such as alimited number of copies, unique messages or other content, photos,player information, event information, hashtag information, meta data,etc., as discussed herein. Once uploaded, the device presents aninterface screen with a button or other form element for the user toconfirm creation of the NFT of the selected content. Thereafter, the NFTof the selected content is stored in the user's blockchain/marketplacewallet.

With regard to FIG. 8 , a block diagram of illustrative modules 800 thatmay be executed on a server is shown. The modules 800 may be utilized toreceive, process, and extract video so as to create an extracted videoas desired by a user.

The modules 800 made include a mobile device interface module 802 thatenables the server to communicate with one or more mobile devices tosupport a user interface, upload or download video, or perform otherfunctions with mobile devices or other electronic devices, such ascomputers configured to process video content. The module 802 may beconfigured to receive video segments in a real-time or semi-real-timebasis while a user is capturing a video and store the video segments ina manner that additional video segments of the same video can beappended or “stitched” to the previous video segment(s). Alternativeconfigurations may be utilized depending on how the mobile device thatis sending the video to the server is configured. As an example, thevideo segment may be received after the video is completely recorded andthen sent in 10 second video segments, but not necessarily within 10seconds between each of the segments, as is performed when communicatingthe video segments during capture of the video. Yet another videotransfer mode may allow for the video to be communicated and received asa whole.

In one embodiment, the module 802 may be configured to receive videocontent that is lower resolution than the resolution of the raw videocontent captured by the mobile device to reduce upload time, datastorage consumption, and processing. As understood in the art,resolution at 640p or 720p on small screens is suitable for mostapplications. However, image processing to identify certain featureswithin image frames or key frames is improved when performed on imageframes with higher resolution (e.g., 1080p). Hence, high-resolutionimages that are separate from the video or embedded within the video maybe received and processed for identifying specific content, such asplayer numbers on jerseys. Depending on the speed of content beingimaged, the frequency of the high-resolution images may vary. In oneembodiment, the high-resolution images may be tagged with a timestamp orother identifier that corresponds to a location in a video segment,thereby allowing for marking or otherwise processing the video based onimage processing of the high-resolution images.

A video extraction parameters module 804 may be configured to identifyparameters that may be used to define specific video content beingsought by a user. For example, the extraction or search parameters mayinclude player number, amount of time the player is in a segment,proximity of the player to a ball or other region on a playing field, orotherwise. The parameters may be communicated from a mobile device orotherwise to the server, and the module 804 may utilize that informationin processing the video to produce an extracted or composite video. Inone embodiment, the video extraction parameters module 804 may beconfigured to process the key frames (e.g., high-resolution imagesperiodically derived from high-resolution video), as opposed to thevideo that may be in lower resolution than the key frames, to determinecontent in the key frames. As an example, if player numbers are beingsearched, the key frames may be used to determine whether a player is ina particular portion of the video by determining that the player numberassociated with the player is in the key frames. If, however, adetermination is made that a player number is in one frame and then asuccessive frame one-half second later does not show the player numberin the image, then a determination may be made as to whether the playersimply turned, left the frame, or multiple video segments exist. Otherreasons for a player number not being in successive key frames may bepossible. Tracking the player numbers within successive key frames mayalso provide for stitching or not stitching video clips together.

A video processing module 806 may be used to process video captured byone or more users using video capture devices. The module 806 may beconfigured to format each video from different users and video capturedevices into a common format prior to, during, or after processing thevideo. For example, the video processing module 806 may include afunction that measures a standard sized object, such as a soccer ball,football, base, net, etc., in a video and uses that measurement todetermine scale of the captured content so as to determine othermeasurements, such as distance of a player from a ball, distance of aperson from a goal, or otherwise, so that a user may submit a searchparameter of a player being a certain maximum distance from a ball,goal, basket, etc. That is, if a standard sized object, such as a soccerball, is measured at a 1/10th scale, then other objects and distancesfrom the video can be measured using that scaling.

As the standard sized object moves through multiple frames, where thestandard sized object moves from being close to being farther from acamera, measurements can be made as the object moves to dynamicallydetermine scale and that scale can be dynamically applied to the otherobjects at the different frames. In an alternative embodiment, if thestandard sized object, such as a goal, basket, field markings (e.g.,yard lines), does not move, then dynamic adjustment of the scale isunnecessary within a single video segment. As an example, as a playerbeing tracked moves in a frame, a distance of the player to the soccerball may be dynamically measured and a predetermined distance, such as 8feet, from the soccer ball may define when the player is “in the action”or not. As the player comes within the predetermined distance, then atag may be automatically applied to a video frame and as the playerexits from the predetermined distance, that video frame may be tagged sothat the video segment between the first and second tags may beidentified as the player being “in the action.” In an alternativeembodiment, an indicator may be associated with a frame or set of frameswhere a player meets a criteria, and a user may manually set a tag basedon the criteria having been met or not, the action happening at thattime, or otherwise.

An extract video module 808 may be configured to extract video that hasbeen identified to meet criteria or search parameters set by a user. Theextract video module 808 may be configured to index the video or copyand paste video content that has been identified into a different regionof memory or on a storage unit.

A video management module 810 may be configured to enable a user and/oradministrator to manage video that has been uploaded. The module 810 maybe configured to store video in association with respective useraccounts, tag the video in a manner that allows for correlating videocontent captured from the same sports event, or copy the video that isdetermined to be captured at the same sports event into another regionof memory that includes all video captured from the same respectivesporting events. The video tagging may be automatic, semi-automatic, ormanually tagged, as described with regard to module 820.

A video upload/download module 812 may enable the user to upload anddownload videos from the server. The module 812 may operate inconjunction or be integrated with the module 802. The module 812 may beconfigured to automatically, semi-automatically, or manually enable theuser to upload and download video to and from the server. In oneembodiment, the module 812 may be configured to allow for real-time orsemi-real-time streaming of video to users who request real-timestreaming.

A share video module 814 may enable a user to share a video with otherusers. In one embodiment, sharing the video with other users may providefor sharing the video with friends, family, other users (e.g.,spectators) at a particular game, users within a particular group (e.g.,high school football group), or otherwise. The module 814 may beconfigured to use search parameters from users that are used by thevideo processing module 806 to identify video segments or streams thatinclude video content that match the search parameters, and cause thevideo segments and/or streaming video to be communicated to userssearching for video segments and/or real-time streaming video content.In one embodiment, because the video content is to be processed todetermine if the video content includes one or more search parameters,real-time streaming may include video content that is delayed due toprocessing limitations.

A social media interface module 816 enables a user to load videocaptured and/or processed by a server onto social media. That is, themodule 816 may enable the user to post video content from the server ishis or her account or processed by the server and available to the userto one or more social networking sites of the user or group (e.g., highschool football fan club). In one embodiment, the module 816 may beconfigured to establish temporary (e.g., game), extended (e.g., season),or permanent social media networks for users to participate inrecording, sourcing, requesting, and receiving video content on areal-time or non-real-time basis, as further described herein.

A synchronized videos 818 module may be utilized to enable the system tosynchronize videos from multiple users. In synchronizing the videos formultiple users, if the users are all using an app that is common, thenthat app may utilize a real time clock to synchronize videos beingcaptured by different users by timestamping video segments, relativeclock that is set by a start of the game, or any other technique forsynchronizing videos, including identifying an action (e.g., ball snap,pitch, hit, etc.) within a video and matching the same action inmultiple videos. The synchronized video module 818 may be utilized bythe video processing module 806.

An apply hashtags module 820 may be configured to automatically,semi-automatically, or manually apply one or more hashtags to a videocontent segment or clip. In applying the hashtags, a server may applytags assigned to the video content segments by users via the applyhashtags module 722, for example, for storage in a data repository.

With regard to FIG. 9 , a flow diagram of an illustrative process 900for processing and creating an extracted video with particularparameters is shown. The process 900 may start at step at 902, where aplayer identifier in a sporting event is received. The player identifiermay be a number on a uniform or jersey of a player that is playing inthe sporting event. At step 904, the player identifier may be identifiedin the video of the sporting event. The number and jersey may be incolor to provide for additional identification capabilities. Inidentifying the player identifier in the video, image processing may beutilized to inspect numbers on jerseys of the players throughout avideo. In one embodiment, the image processing may identify specificcolors of jerseys, thereby enabling filtering of players in a mannerthat avoids identifying a player with the same number on the other team.The player identifier may also have another parameter that defines theplayer as being in a particular position, such as offense or defense, sothat when an offense of a team is on the field, and the player is on thedefense, the video processing may simply skip that segment. It should beunderstood that player numbers and colors may be utilized, but otherunique identifiers and combinations of unique identifiers may beutilized to determine player and team of the player.

At step 906, one or more video segments may be defined from videoinclusive of the player identifier. In identifying the video segments,start and stop times or any other indices that identify video segmentsin which the player identifier is included may be used. At step 908,extracted video inclusive of the one or more video segments may begenerated. The extracted video may be generated by using references toparticular video segments in a single video or multiple videos, or maybe a new video that includes each of the selected video segmentsinclusive of the player identifier. The extracted video may also includetransition video segments between each of the extracted video segmentsthat form the extracted video. At step 910, the extracted video may becaused to be available for replay. In causing the extracted video to beavailable for replay, the video may be available on a mobile device of auser, available on a server accessible by the user via a mobile deviceor other electronic device, written to and stored in a non-transitorystorage medium, such as a disk, tape, or otherwise.

With regard to FIG. 10 , a flow diagram of an illustrative process 1000for crowdsourcing video content is shown. The process 1000 may start atstep 1002, where multiple video content segments of a sporting eventfrom video capture devices being operated in an uncoordinated manner maybe received at a central location. In being uncoordinated, the videocapture devices may be operated by users who are not centrallycoordinated by a video production manager using the video to broadcastor for use by a team. The users may be fans, supporters, spectators,family, friends of the team (e.g., coaches), or even part of the team,but overall not coordinated.

At step 1004, a player in one more video segment may be identified usingimage processing. In identifying the player, a player identifier, suchas a player number on his or her uniform, may be identified usingcharacter recognition or other image processing technique. In oneembodiment, if a player is indicated as being on a particular team, ateam jersey may be identified by colors (e.g., white jersey with bluewriting on the jersey). If the player is identified in a video segment,indices, markers, pointers, timestamps, or any other computerimplemented indicator that defines a start and end of the video segmentinclusive of the player may be utilized.

At step 1006 at least a portion of video content segments inclusive ofthe player in the video segments may be extracted. In extracting thevideo, the indices, markers, pointers, timestamps, or other computerimplemented indicator being used to identify a start and end of a videosegment may be stored in an array or other memory configuration. Inresponse to a user requesting to play the video segment(s), theidentified video segments as identified by the indices may be played,while unmarked video segments may be skipped. The video extraction mayalso include identifying one or more tags with video content segments inwhich a player is or is not included, and those tagged video contentsegments may be extracted for inclusion in a video. Alternatively,copies of the marked segments may be copied into a different storage ormemory area so that a new video including the video segments may beassembled into an extracted video.

At step 1008, at least a portion of the video content segments inclusiveof the queried player (i.e., the player matching a submitted identifieras a search parameter) may be enabled for the user to view. In oneembodiment, enabling the video content to be available for a user toview may include enabling the user to view the video content via amobile device or may be written on a non-transitory memory device, suchas a DVD, or downloadable via a website, online store, or otherwise.

With regard to FIG. 11 , a flow diagram of an illustrative process 1100used to create a video from video segments is shown. The process 1100may start at step 1102, where video segments or indices that definevideo segments from videos of sporting events may be received. At step1104, video inclusive of the video segments is created. Each of thevideo segments include a player in the video content that meet or aretagged with input search parameters, such as duration of time near aball, performing a certain play, at a certain location, in the videosegment for a certain amount of time, or otherwise. The extracted orcomposite video may be created by including transition segments betweenthe video segments. It should be understood that the creation of a videomay include generating a list of computer pointers, tags, and/ortimestamps that enable a computer to access video content withoutcopying or assembling a new composite video.

With regard to FIGS. 12A and 12B, an illustration of a video capturedevice 1200, such as a smartphone, that includes an electronic display1202 is shown. In FIG. 12A, the video capture device 1200 may utilize aprocessing unit (not shown) to execute an application or user interface(e.g., website) that supports capturing and creating extracted videobased on one or more input search parameters. The video capture device1200 may identify video content inclusive of content that satisfies theinput parameter(s) in generating the extracted video. After capturingvideo, the video capture device 1200 may provide a user with a userinterface 1204 a that enables the user to select a player based on anidentifier, such as a number, on the player's uniform. As shown, a userinterface element 1206 may be selected by the user, and a selectablelist 1208 may provide the user with player numbers identified withinvideo segments captured by the video capture device 1200. Alternatively,rather than listing numbers limited to players on a team, all numbers0-99 may be available for selection of a number matching a player. Inthis instance, the user selected player number 7.

In FIG. 12B, user interface 1204 b presents two videos that match theuser's input criteria to create an extracted video limited to only thosevideo clips with player number “7.” As shown, (i) extracted video 1210 acreated from only video that the user recorded is available for playingand (ii) extracted video 1210 b that includes video of the player number“7” that was crowd sourced (i.e., video submitted by the user and anyother user at the same game who submitted video for some or all theusers to search with input parameters to create an extracted video).

With regard to FIG. 13 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1300 is shown. The user interface 1300 provides for a number ofdifferent parameter inputs for the system to use in searching videocontent to identify video segments that satisfy the input parameters. Asshown, an “action” soft-button 1302, “player” soft-button 1304, “playtype” soft-button 1306, “game time” soft-button 1308, “format”soft-button 1310, “segment duration” soft-button 1312, “video feed type”soft-button 1314, “game select” soft-button 1316 are available for auser to select. It should be understood that additional and/oralternative soft-buttons may be provided on the user interface 1300, aswell.

The “action” soft-button 1302 may enable a user to select video segmentsin which action or particular actions are occurring. For example, theuser may be able to select or set a type of action, such as an action inwhich a player is within a certain distance of a ball, in front of arace, or otherwise. In selecting actions, pre-established tags may beapplied by crowd editing as described herein and applied to videocontent segments.

The “player” soft-button 1304 enables the user to select a particularplayer on a respective team. For example, the user may select a playernumber on the uniform of a player, such as shown in FIG. 12A. Otherconfigurations for selecting a player may be utilized, includingenabling the user to view a still image from a video and select a playershown in the image using a touchscreen or otherwise.

The “play type” soft-button 1306 may enable a user to request aparticular type of play from a particular type of sport. For example, ifthe sport is baseball, then the user may be able to select which playercatches the ball, throws a pitch, is at bat, steals a base, or any otherplay. Other sports, such as lacrosse, may have different types of plays,such as scoring a goal, preventing a goal from being scored, making apass, catching or throwing the ball, or otherwise.

The “game time” soft-button 1308 may be used to enable the user torequest video content that matches game time (e.g., 43:07 minutes),actual time (e.g., 10:18 am), or segment of a game (e.g., 4th quarter).To enact such a search feature, one embodiment may apply actual time orrelative game time to received video content, if known, so that a usermay select specific time frames to identify and extract video segments.

The “format” soft-button 1310 may enable the user to select a particularformat that he or she wants to receive or view and extract videoinclusive of content that satisfies the input parameters. For example,the format selection may enable downloading to a mobile device, postingto the website, writing onto a tangible memory device, or otherwise.

The “segment durations” soft-button 1312 may enable the user to selectone or more durations of time for each video segment to extend. Forexample, the user may select that only video segments having a minimumof about five seconds (e.g., 4.80 seconds or higher) of desired videocontent be identified and extracted.

The “video feed type” soft-button 1314 may enable a user to select avideo feed type, such as “instant replay” or “live feed.” If, forexample, “instant replay” is selected, then real-time notifications maybe sent and/or video delivery may be communicated to the user of themobile device. An instant replay enables the user to access video, viaeither a pull or push communication mode, being collected from otherusers who are participating in a temporary social network established atthe game or event. As further described herein, the user may also selectto access video content including certain search parameters, forexample, from other games. By being able to access video so that aparent with two or more children playing in different games at differentlocations can see instant replays (or real-time streaming) of theirchildren when identified using search parameters by a search system.

The “game select” soft-button 1316 may enable to search for and/orselect games that are being played in a local area or more broadly inother geographic areas. The search may include the system providing alist of selectable games that are geographically sorted, alphabeticallysorted, game start sorted, or keyword searchable, as understood in theart.

With regard to FIG. 14A, an illustration of a video capture device orother electronic device 1400 may be configured to display a graphicaluser interface 1402. The video capture device 1400 is to be wirelesslynetworked to a remote server configured to receive, process, andcommunicate video. The graphical user interface 1402 may be generated byan application or mobile app being executed by the video capture device1400 or be driven by a remote electronic device, such as a server via acommunications network (e.g., mobile network, Internet, and/or local viaa wireless communications link that is local to a sports playing fieldat which the user operating the video capture device 1400 is located).The graphical user interface 1402 includes a selection soft-button 1404to select a video feed type, such as “instant replay.” A user may selectthe soft-button 1404 to select another type of video feed, such as “livestream.”

A “current game” soft-button 1406 may show a current game or event beingpresented in the user interface 1402, and may be selectable to enablethe user to select another game from which to receive instant replayvideo segments. A “location” soft-button 1408 may show a currentlocation at which the game is being played. The soft-button 1408 may beselectable to enable the user to select other locations of games fromwhich to select.

A table 1410 of available and selectable video segment links 1412 a-1412n (collectively 1412) is shown. The video segment links 1412 may behyperlinks and used to send a request to download respective videocontent. In one embodiment, the links 1412 may include thumbnail orother images associated therewith. The table 1410 may include a numberof different fields, including player 1414 a, team 1414 b, location 1414c, time 1414 d, and video segment length 1414 e. It should be understoodthat alternative and/or additional fields associated with video segmentsmay be available, as well. As shown, the table 1410 is sorted by playernumber. It should be understood that the table 1410 may be sorted by anyof the other fields or combination of fields (e.g., player 1414 a first,video segment length 1414 e second). As shown, the location provides aspecific location of a user at the game. As an example, a user may belocated on the home team side, 50 yard line, at the sideline.Alternatively, the user may be located on the away team side, 30 yardline, in the stands. More granular location information may also beavailable, such as north side of the 50 yard line, south side of the 50yard line, row number, section number, or any other location identifieror descriptor.

In one embodiment, when a user checks into a game, which may be set upas a temporary social media event, the user may be provided with anumber of different input parameters that he or she may enter or selectto identify his or her specific location at the game so that other usersat the game or remotely located from the game can know where the user islocated when recording the video. Alternatively, image processing may beutilized to automatically determine location and/or angle of a userrelative to a field or other sports venue (e.g., determine alignmentrelative to 50-yard line). As shown, each video segment identifiedincludes a player number that is identified within the video segment. Ifmultiple players are identified within a video segment, then multiplelistings for the same video segment may be shown, but associated withdifferent players. By presenting the data in this matter, a user mayselect a single player to view and filter out other players or have theability to see all players and what video segments are available fromdifferent angles including different start times and having differentvideo segment lengths. Rather than all of the available video segmentsbeing listed, the user may establish a filter to limit the listing onlyto those video segments that meet search parameters. In one embodiment,the video content segments may be listed according to angle versus timefor a user to select desired video content segments.

Because the table 1410 is meant to provide users or spectators withinstant replays, the video segments may be processed in real-time andposted in real-time to be available for selection by the users so thatthe user may watch the instant replay video segments at an appropriatetime (e.g., just after a play occurred or during a referee meeting todetermine whether a call was correct). The list 1410 may be ordered in atime sequential order so that past plays may also be available forwatching. In response to a user selecting one of the video segment links1412, such as video segment link 1412 c, the user interface 1402 maytransition into a video player, such as that shown in FIG. 14C. In oneembodiment, a video segment may be recorded or converted to be slowmotion or fast motion and an identifier indicative of that video formatmay be listed in association with the video segments.

With regard to FIG. 14B, an illustration of the video recording device1400 is shown to be displaying a user interface 1402 b, where the userhas selectably changed the view from an “instant replay” view to a “livestreaming” view by selecting the video feed type soft-button 1404. Theuser interface 1402 b enables the user to select search parameters, suchas those shown in table 1416, where the user may select and enter aplayer, team, play/action, and delivery. As shown, the user has enteredtwo sets of search parameters 1418 a and 1418 b. In the first set ofsearch parameters 1418 a, the user has selected player number “6,” teamname, action type of where the player is 10 feet or less from the ball,and video delivery, where a notification delivery may include displayinga video segment that matches the search parameters to be posted to alist for the user to view or any other type of message notification thatenables the user to select and download video content, as understood inthe art. If the user selects an automatic delivery, then in response toa particular set of search parameters occurring and being identified asoccurring, then a video segment that matches the search parameter may beautomatically in a list, streamed, or otherwise delivered to the videorecording device 1400. In one embodiment, the video segments mayautomatically be displayed on the video recording device, such as in avideo viewer as provided in FIG. 14C. Another list 1420 may enable auser to select from a set of live streaming sources 1422 a-1422 c thatlists locations 1424 a, users 1424 b, and camera types 1424 c from whichto select by a user.

With regard to FIG. 14C, is an illustration of the video recordingdevice 1400 presenting the user interface 1402 c, where the userinterface 1402 c includes a video display region 1426 for video contentto be displayed. The user interface 1402 c may include a “live stream”soft-button 1428 a and “instant replay” soft-button 1428 b that may beselectable by the user to select whether he or she wants to watch livestreaming or an instant replay, respectively. A “record” soft-button1428 c may enable a user to start recording new video content withouthaving to leave the user interface 1402 c.

In one embodiment, currently set search parameters 1430 may be displayedand selectable for the user to alter the search parameters 1430. Forexample, the user may be able to select a player search parameter 1432 ato change player number, team search parameter 1432 b for the user tochange teams, and play/action search parameter 1432 c to change the playor action search parameter. It should be understood that additionaland/or alternative search parameters, such as tags, may be displayed ordisplayable for the user to view and alter, as desired. A source datafield 1434 may display a current source from which video being displayedin the video display region 1426 is being viewed. The user may selectthe source data field 1434 to select a different source of video contentto be displayed in the video display region 1426. For the live streaming1428 a, data that is being collected from any video capturing device atthe game using an application that is set up for a temporary socialnetwork may communicate data being captured via a communications networkto a server that collects, processes, and distributes the video contentto the video capturing devices, and are part of the temporary socialnetwork in a real-time manner. With further regard to FIG. 2 , in theevent that the user has set up a live stream delivery, then the server206 may communicate the live stream 210 for distribution to videocapture devices 106 that request the live stream of any other videocapture device 106. It should be understood that the live stream may beoperative without having a search parameter being met, but ratheroperate more as a peer-to-peer communication where one fan is able tosee a video feed from another fan. In one embodiment, a verificationprocess may be used to confirm that the video feed is being sourced froma playing field, where a playing field may be any area at which asporting event is played, such as a pool, basketball court, track,football field, etc. The confirmation of the video feed being sourcedfrom a playing field may include identifying at least one feature of aplaying field, such as grass, to avoid a fan distributing undesirablevideo content to another fan. Moreover, one embodiment may include ahuman curator or editor to review video content prior to distribution ofthe video content.

In the event that the user has selected the “instant replay” soft-button1428 b, content that is displayed or displayable in the video displayregion 1426 may not be streamed, but rather downloadable and pushed tothe device 1400 for selection, unless requested to be automaticallydisplayed, as described with regard to FIG. 14B, and viewed.

The system may be configured to establish certain relationships betweena player and activity. For example, the system may be configured toautomatically identify and tag when the player is (i) a certain distancefrom a ball (e.g., soccer ball), (ii) in a particular stance (e.g., in abatting stance, on the ground (in the case of a slide tackle insoccer)), (iii) traveling at a certain speed (e.g., for race car drivingor other sports in which speed is a factor), (iv) in a particularposition (e.g., off the ground, near a basket, near a goal, in a crease,near another player, near a sideline, in a batter's box), (v) in a scenefor a certain period of time (e.g., 5 seconds), (vi) at a certaindistance from a camera, or otherwise so that specific actions by theplayer or other criteria can be searched. Alternatively, and asdescribed herein, crowd edited tagging of video content segments may beperformed in a manual and/or semi-automatic manner (e.g., computerperforms a first pass or filtering and user confirms or modifies tags).

In recording the video, standard video cameras, mobile imaging devices(e.g., mobile phones, tablets, GoPro cameras, etc.) may be used and thevideo footage may be accessed by an editing/playback system capable ofbeing executed on cameras to perform the various identificationfunctions described above. Alternatively, the video footage may beloaded into a separate or remote (e.g., on a server via a communicationsnetwork) system that executes a software system that processes the imagedata independent of the video cameras. In the case of the softwaresystem being resident on the camera, tagging or identification of thespecific players in captured video may be performed in real-time.Alternatively, the tagging or identification of the specific players inthe captured video may be performed post-video capture.

For capturing the video, one or more cameras may be used. If multiplecameras are used, the cameras may be synched, or software being executedby both cameras may be remotely synched, such that real-time or relativetime between the cameras may be established. In the case of usingreal-time, real-time clock data may be recorded and associated with oneor more video frames so that video from different camera angles may becollected and available to a user who wants to watch a player fromdifferent angles. For example, in the case of football, cameras may beplaced on opposing goal posts and at an announcers' box. Handheldcameras, including mobile devices, may also be used. Because only one ofthe goal post cameras will capture the number of the player at eachlineup in which the player participates, the other two camera angles maynever capture the number of the player, and the software system may notbe able to tag or identify the video frames in which the player isparticipating. However, because video from one of the multiple camerasis able to be used to identify that the player is in the scene and thevideos can be synched (at least the times at which the videos arecaptured can be identified), then the video captured from each of thecameras may be tagged or identified as containing the player. In analternative embodiment, the cameras may simply be cameras used by fans,and video content may be uploaded to a system that identifies players bynumbers on their uniforms and uses tracking software, as understood inthe art, to track the players.

If multiple cameras are used to capture video from different videoangles, a user may select a video that provides for the best image ofthe unique identifier (e.g., player number), such as a complete numberover a partial number. The selected video can be used in identifying theplayer. If the videos are synched, then the system may automaticallyidentify the same player in each of the different videos from thedifferent angles. In one embodiment, the system may be automated toidentify the video with the best view of the player identifier.

In an embodiment, a system may create a set of video playable segmentsin which a player's number is identified (e.g., at the start of a playor video segment in which the player appears) using characterrecognition. The set of video segments may be thumbnails that may beselected using touch or other features to enable the user to view thevideo segments. In addition, the video segments may be formed into asingle video with or without transition segments (e.g., fade-to-black)between the video segments. An editing system may also enable a user tosimply drag, select, or otherwise cause the video segment or aselectable portion thereof to be inserted into or at the end of acontinuous video using video editing techniques, as understood in theart. In an alternative embodiment, the system may be automated andfollow input parameters for content to comply, and, if so, thesteadiest, longest, brightest, clearest, sharpest, or other imageparameters may establish which video segment from multiple videosegments of the same play at different angles should be selected. Thevideo segments may be associated with actual time and/or game time.

In an embodiment, the system may enable a user to select a zoom levelfor video inclusive of a player wearing a selected unique identifier.The zoom level may be selected from multiple, predetermined selectablezoom levels. Alternatively, a dynamic zoom level may be set by a user,and the system may maintain that zoom level.

In another embodiment, the system may enable a user to select a cropdistance surrounding a player wearing a selected unique identifier. Thecrop distance may be selected from multiple, predetermined selectablecrop distances. Alternatively, a dynamic crop distance may be set by auser, and the system may maintain that crop distance surrounding theplayer.

Access to the video system may be via the camera (if configured with thevideo processing system), cloud via a website, or local computer. Thesoftware may be native or a downloadable app.

With regard to FIG. 15 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1500 for a coach to sign-up and select a roster for the team is shown.The user interface 1500 is shown to include a “select roster” window1502, in which a coach of a team may perform a search to search a datarepository for a player name or team name to identify players to includeon a team roster. A team roster 1506 may be shown as the coachidentifies players on a team. As an example, a player item 1508 includesa player name 1510, player number 1512, player position 1514, andselectable photo element 1516 in which the coach may select and enter aphoto of the player. In one embodiment, the coach may select and/orenter the player number and player position using the user interface1500. As shown, the select roster window 1502 may enable the coach tocancel select in the roster using a cancel soft-button 1518 or select a“done” soft-button 1520 upon completion of selecting the roster.

With regard to FIG. 16 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1600 for a player to sign-up and select or submit player information,including jersey number and team name via respective user interfaceinput elements 1602 and 1604 is shown. The player or athlete may electto skip submitting the information using a “skip” soft-button 1606 orsubmit the information by selecting a “done” soft-button 1608 within awindow or region 1610.

With regard to FIG. 17 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1700 for a fan or other user to sign-up and select player(s) to followis shown. The user interface may include a text entry box 1702 for auser to enter a player name or team to cause a list 1704 of players tobe displayed. Rather than using a text entry box 1702, other graphicaluser interface element(s) may be provided to the fan to locate a playeror list of players. Each player record may include a player name 1706,player number 1708 on the player's jersey, position 1710 of the player,team 1712 of the player, photo 1714 of the player, and “follow”soft-button 1716 for the user to selectively follow the respectiveplayer. The user interface 1700 may also provide a “skip” soft-button1718 to enable the user not to follow any players and “done” soft-button1720 to enable the user to initiate following the selected players. Inone embodiment, the “follow” soft-button may change colors or names(e.g., “following,” “stop following,” etc.).

With regard to FIG. 18A, a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1800 a inclusive of illustrative video feeds 1802 a and 1802 b are shownto enable a user to view one or more videos of a player captured duringa sporting event are shown. The video feeds 1802 may be real-time ornon-real-time videos that are available for a user to view. The userinterface 1800 includes an information section 1804 that showsinformation 1806, including player number, player name, time of videocapture, photo of player, etc. Additional information 1808 may includeteam names and games (e.g., names of teams playing one another),location of game or event, etc. Control elements 1810 may provide for aplay video soft-button, time of video, add video soft-button, and so on.

With regard to FIG. 18B, a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1800 b inclusive of the video feeds 1802 a and 1802 b of FIG. 18A areshown. An “add to favorites” soft-button 1812 allows for a user to addthe video feed 1802 a to a favorite video list. An “add hashtags”soft-button 1814 enables a user to add hashtag(s) to the video in thevideo feed 1802 a. A “share with friends” soft-button 1816 enables theuser to share the video with friends or family of the user. The videofeed may include other conventional controls, including time controlelement 1818, full screen control element 1820, and zoom control element1822. Other control elements may be provided to a user, as well.

With regard to FIG. 19 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface1900 that enables a user to assign one or more hashtags to a videosegment or clip is shown. A list of hashtag soft-buttons 1902 is shownto have respective hashtags 1904 a-1904 m (collectively 1904) that maybe assigned to a video segment may be specific actions performed duringa soccer game. It should be understood that the list 1902 mayalternatively be defined with hashtags for any sport or activity. Asshown, the hashtags 1904 may include “goal,” “assist,” “shot,” “save,”“tackle,” “foul,” “free kick,” “penalty,” “corner,” “header,” “cross,”“volley,” and “add other.” By assigning one or more of the hashtags 1904to the video, users may search for one or more hashtags, and one or moreplayers, to identify videos of interest. Each user may assign one ormore hashtags to a video segment such that a combination of the uniquehashtags define each of the actions or items in the video segment. Thehashtags assigned by each of the users may be a subset of a complete setof hashtags formed by a combination of unique hashtags assigned by allof the users.

The user interface 1900 may also include a name of a game 1906associated with the video segment, cancel soft-button 1908, and “done”soft-button 1910 to accept the assignment(s) of the hashtag(s) 1904 tothe video segment. Assigning hashtags by users operates as a crowdediting function in that one or more viewers may assign the hashtags tovideo segments collected by users, thereby enabling users to collectvideo of players at a sporting event and each of the users to accessvideo from each of the participating users.

With regard to FIG. 20A, a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2000 a is shown to enable a user to create an event, such as a soccergame. The user may be a coach, parent, fan, spectator, organizer, orotherwise. The event may be any event type established for creation byan operator of the system. As shown, the user interface 2000 a mayinclude a “home team” selection element 2002, “away team” selectionelement 2004, “location” selection element 2006, and “date” selectionelement 2008. Selection of the selection elements 2002 and 2004 mayprovide for a user interface 2000 b with a list of teams 2012 (FIG. 20B)and user interface 2000 c with a list of teams 2014 (FIG. 20C) availablefor selection of home and away teams, respectively, by the user.Alternative listings, such as locations (e.g., towns, schools, etc.)league(s), from which the user may browse to find the home and awayteams may be provided, as well. A selection of the “location” selectionelement 2006 may enable the user to select from a list of locations. Inone embodiment, a GPS location of a mobile device on which the userinterface 2000 a is being executed may provide a reduced list oflocations (e.g., fields) at which games may be available for selection.A user interface 2000 d is shown to include a list of locations 2016 atwhich an event is to be held may be available for selection. The userinterface 2000 d may also include a text entry field 2018 may enable auser to enter a location to narrow a search for the location of theevent. Once the event items are selected, as shown on the user interface2000 e in FIG. 20E, the user may select a “save” soft-button 2010 forentry of the event. The event may be selected by the user and otherusers for interfacing with the system thereafter. As shown in FIG. 20F,a user interface 2000 f may display a message 2020 that notifies theuser that the event has been added, and the user may select an “addvideo” soft-button 2022 to add a video from the event or “skip”soft-button 2024 to skip adding video at the event. It should beunderstood that a variety of different information may be presentedbased on the event type or other factor.

With regard to FIG. 21A, a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2100 may provide for a user to browse content collected at one or moreevents by selecting an “athletes” soft-button 2102 a, “videos”soft-button 2102 b, and “hashtags” soft-button 2102 c is shown.Selection of the “athletes” soft-button 2102 a may cause a list ofathletes 2104 from which the user may select to follow one or moreathletes 2106 by pressing a “follow” soft-button from a correspondinglist of soft-buttons 2108. As shown in FIG. 21B, responsive to a userselecting the “videos” soft-button 2102 b, a user interface 2100 b mayinclude a list of video segments 2110 may be displayed for a user toreview and select individual video segment(s). As shown in FIG. 21C,responsive to a user selecting the “hashtags” soft-button 2102 c, a userinterface 2100 c may include a list of available hashtags 2112 andnumber of video segments or clips having respective hashtags associatedtherewith. As an example, a //Touchdown hashtag has 530 videosassociated therewith. More detailed search parameters may help to narrowdown the videos inclusive of the //Touchdown hashtag.

With regard to FIGS. 22A-22C, user interfaces 2200 a-2200 c may providefor searching for videos are shown. In FIG. 22A, the user interface 2200a may include a list of videos 2202 associated with a particular player.The list of videos 2202 may include all videos of the player from one ormore sporting events. A “follow” soft-button 2204 may enable the user tofollow the player. In FIG. 22B, the user interface 2200 b may include alist of videos 2206 inclusive of one or more players and having aparticular hashtag, in this case //touchdown, associated therewith. InFIG. 22C, the user interface 2200 c may provide for a search so that theuser may search for videos that are associated with a particular playerand hashtag, for example, and a list of videos 2208 may be displayed inresponse to a search.

With regard to FIG. 23 , a user interface 2300 may provide for a videoediting environment in which video clips taken by different users atdifferent angles may be listed along a first axis 2302 y and time of thevideo clips may be along a second axis 2302 x is shown. The differentusers that collect the video clips may be located around a sportingevent, for example. In one embodiment, the user may enter a locationrelative to a field (e.g., home team side, 30 yard line), and thelocation may be used for positioning relative to other video clipscollected from a sporting event, in this case the Oakland Riders vsGolden State Warriors game. A first composite video 2304 is shown to beassembled from multiple video clips 2306, in this case three videoclips. The composite video 2304 has associated information 2308,including number of players, number of tags, duration, and number ofvideo clips. Available video clips 2310 that meet a search criteria(e.g., player number(s), hashtag(s), or otherwise) may be listed andavailable for a user to select to include in a composite or extractedvideo. By providing for each of the video clips with crowd sourced tags,a user may be able to identify and select video content in a fast andeasy manner and at angles not possible for a single user to obtain.Various video editing functions, such as clipping, zooming,transitioning, etc., as understood in the art, may be provided, as well.In one embodiment, the editing deck may be automated so that the user isable to receive a composite video without having to perform customselection or editing.

With regard to FIG. 24 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2400 that provides instructions for a user to control functionality ofthe video editing environment is shown. The user interface 2400 mayinclude an arrow 2402 with an instruction at the arrow that indicates toa user that swiping the screen in the direction of the arrow, in thiscase to the right, to keep the video segment or clip that has beencaptured. An arrow 2404, in this case a left pointing arrow, may includean instruction that indicates that if the user swipes the screen to theleft, then the video segment will be discarded or deleted. A tap symbol2406 with an instruction, such as “tap to edit,” may indicate to theuser to tap the screen to display another user interface to edit thevideo clip. For example, the editing may include editing or setting astart and stop time of the video so as to shorten a full-length videoclip to a shorter video clip. Other video editing functions, such aslighting, zoom, etc., may also be available in an editing mode. Anotherarrow 2408, in this case an upward pointing arrow, may have a messagethat indicates to the user that swiping upwards may enable the user toreassign a jersey number with which the video is associated. In anembodiment, rather than reassigning the jersey number, the user may havethe ability to add one or more jersey numbers or perform otherassignment actions in response to the user swiping the screen upwards.The instruction user interface 2400 may have alternative configurationsalong with additional functionality.

With regard to FIG. 25 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2500 that displays a captured video clip 2502 is shown. The capturedvideo clip 2502 may be swiped in a first direction, such as right, tosave or keep the video clip 2502, and may be swiped in a seconddirection, such as left, to discard the video clip 2502. In addition tobeing able to swipe the video clip 2502 right and left, “keep” and“discard” soft-buttons 2504 a and 2504 b may be used by the user to saveand discard or delete the captured video clip 2502. It should beunderstood that additional and/or alternative controls may be providedto a user on the user interface to control keeping and discarding videoclips that are captured. An upload or share selectable indicia 2506 mayenable the user to upload or share the video clip 2502, where the videoclip may be edited or raw. The user interface 2500 may be provided tothe user just after capturing a video clip, prior to or during editingone or more video clips, prior to uploading one or more video clips,and/or after uploading one or more video clips to a network server whilebrowsing or otherwise accessing the uploaded video clips.

With regard to FIG. 26 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2600 may be displayed in response to the user using the user interface2500 to keep a video clip is shown. An indicia (e.g., circle) along witha “keep” message 2602 may be displayed to notify the user that the videoclip has been kept in response to the user swiping or otherwiseselecting to keep a video clip. It should be understood that alternativemessages, indicia, and/or keep messages may be displayed to the user.

With regard to FIG. 27 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2700 that may be displayed in response to the user using the userinterface 2500 to discard a video clip is shown. An indicia along with a“keep” message 2702 may be displayed to notify the user that the videoclip has been kept in response to the user swiping or otherwiseselecting to keep a video clip. It should be understood that alternativemessages, indicia, and/or discard messages may be displayed to the user.

With regard to FIG. 28 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2800 that may be displayed after capturing a video clip 2802 is shown.The user interface 2800 shows the captured video clip 2802. Information2804 beneath the captured video clip 2802 may indicate that the video israw (i.e., not edited for length or otherwise), and enable the user tokeep or discard the video by selecting either the “keep” or “discard”soft-buttons 2806 a or 2806 b or by swiping right or left. Theinformation 2804 may include an arrow 2805, in this case pointingdownwards to indicate to the user that he or she may download the videoclip 2802 from a networked server. The arrow 2805 may also point upwardsto indicate to the user that the video clip 2802 is local on the mobiledevice, and that he or she may upload the video 2802 to a networkedserver. Information 2808 above the video clip 2802 may include one ormore player numbers 2810 to which the video clip is assigned orassociated, team name, gender, and sport name, for example. It should beunderstood that additional and/or alternative information (e.g., date ofcapture, location of capture, current score at time of capture, finalscore of game, and so on) associated with the captured video 2802 may bedisplayed.

With regard to FIG. 29 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface2900 on which a window or page 2902 may be displayed to enable a user toreassign a jersey number to a selected video clip is shown. The page2902 may be displayed in response to a user performing a gesture, suchas swiping a video upwards, or selecting a soft-button to perform ajersey reassignment for a video. In an embodiment, rather than justreassignment, additional jersey numbers may be added to a video clip. Asshown, a message 2904 that indicates the current jersey number assignedto the video currently, and a text or selection field 2906 may bepresented to enable the user to select or enter a new number of a jerseyto be associated with the video. The user may select or enter a newjersey number in the field 2906, and select to either save the newjersey number via a “soft” soft-button 2908 a or, alternatively, resetthe jersey number assigned to the video by selecting a “reset” salt openbutton 2908 b. The user may select a “cancel” soft-button 2908 c tocancel reassigning a jersey number to the video.

With regard to FIG. 30 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3000 that enables the user to edit a video clip is shown. The userinterface 3000 may include a video clip 3002 along with a full timeline3004 of the original video clip 3002, in this case a 2:45 secondtimeline, and a timeline 3006 showing times of an edited video clip witha first time selectable indicia 3008 a and second time selectableindicia 3008 b that a user may move or otherwise select to change astarting time and ending time, respectively, to produce an edited videoclip. The edited video clip may be a portion of the raw video clip. Inthis case, the starting time of the edited video clip is 2:35 seconds,and the end time of the edited video clip is 2:45 seconds. In anembodiment, the edit times available for the first and second indicia3008 a-3008 b may be limited to a particular time, such as 10 seconds.Alternatively, a non-fixed amount of time less than the original lengthof time of the original video clip may be available to the user to set.Once the user has edited start and stop times of the video clip, theuser may select a “save” soft-button 3010 a to save the edited videoclip or selected a “reset” soft-button 3010 b to reset the edited videoclip to be the same timeline as the original video clip. Although theuser interface 3000 is configured to enable the user to adjust length ofthe edited video clip, it should be understood that alternative videoediting capabilities may also be available, such as lighting, angle,zoom, or any other video editing feature, as understood in the art.

Highlight Reels

Creating a highlight video or reel by users, or even professionals, is adifficult and time-consuming task. To simplify the creation of ahighlight video or highlight reel of an event, such as a sporting event,an automated process may be utilized using an algorithm that appliesweights and/or priorities to select particular video clips. Forparticipants in an event, such as a team sport (e.g., football, soccer),different types of highlight videos may be created, including a personalhighlight video and a team highlight video. For a personal highlightvideo, a highlight video may be created that features a particularplayer. For a team highlight video, a highlight video may be createdthat includes selected or all of the players on the team. Creation ofthe highlight videos may be performed through use of acomputer-implemented algorithm that is automated, at least to a certainextent.

More particularly, the platform may produce two types of automaticallygenerated highlight reels, including an “auto-reel” and “composite-reel”optionally for both individuals and teams. Auto-reels may be generatedautomatically for each sports event (e.g., game) where video of theevent has been uploaded to server from video capture device(s).Composite-reels may be generated on demand. For each type, two subtypesof highlight reels may be generated, a personal reel that highlightsgame events related to a specific player, and a team reel that featuresgame events potentially related to any player involved in game play.

Both auto-reels and composite-reels are generated by editing together asequence of video clips to form a highlight video or highlight reel.

The source video clips are created by automatically selecting a shortsegment of the uploaded raw video. One selection criterion may include adigital signal indicating an automated recognition of a specific playerusing an artificial-intelligence based player video recognition processthat identifies indicia associated with players, as previouslydescribed. Another selection criterion may include a user input (e.g., ahighlight click) when a user designates a point in time of the game-playthat is noteworthy. A highlight click can be collected may be as abutton-click (e.g., soft-button on a user interface) in a mobile app ofthe platform while a user is filming game action in the app. A highlightclick can also be collected through the app while a user is not filminggame action, but is only submitting highlight click inputs. In addition,a user may supply highlight click inputs there while viewing uploadedgame video in a web-based desktop application after the game hasoccurred. When a highlight click is collected through the mobileapplication from a user who is not simultaneously recording video, theclick may be synchronized to the video recorded and uploaded by othersby a timestamp of the click event. When a highlight click is assigned inthe web-based desktop app, it may be synchronized to the subject videoby reference to the frame ID of the video frame in view when thehighlight click is submitted.

In some circumstances, highlight clicks may have other attributes. Forexample, some highlight clicks might be limited to being associated withthe play of a particular squad of a team, such as the offensive team, apenalty-defense squad, or another group of particular interest in thecontext of a specific sport or program. In the creation of a reel,highlight clicks of a particular type may be given special significanceat the election of the user. Highlight clicks may also be associatedwith a particular team in the game, such as, for example, a home team oran away team.

Highlight reels have a target duration, 1-minute for auto-reels and3-minutes for composite reels. The actual delivered duration of ahighlight video may differ from the target for a number of reasons, forexample, clips are added without being truncated, so the sum of thecomponent clip lengths may not equal the target. Other criteria for thedistribution of different content types within the video may result in avideo that is longer than the target length, such as a video containinga minimum percentage of “highlight” clips versus recognition clips. Inan embodiment, the sum of the available uploaded video may fall short ofthe target reel length.

Highlight reels may be enhanced (i) by the addition of introductorytitle slides, (ii) by the application of transition effects betweenvideo clips, (iii) by the provision of a sound track, (iv) by theaddition of still photos of the team, players, or other scenes, and (v)other features.

One feature of an automatically generated highlight reel is through theuse of a clip selection algorithm that determines which clips out of allthe available clips from the selected games and potentially related to aselected player should be used in the final reel. The clip selectionalgorithm may optimally select the most relevant clips based onavailable information. The information may include (i) whether thespecified player is recognized by their jersey number in the clip by anAI recognition subsystem, (ii) whether a clip is a highlight clip. If aclip is a highlight clip, whether the highlight designation was suppliedby the person who filmed the video, by a person with an expressedinterest in an athlete, or other special attributes of the highlightclick.

The clip selection algorithm may also fulfill content distributiontargets (i.e., time or image content distribution of video capturedduring an entirety of an event) based on the type of reel the system isgenerating by applying the following rules, among others:

-   -   (1) When the system generates a personal auto-reel (single game        source material) for a subject player, the system attempts to        include 50% clips that feature the subject player and fills the        remaining span of the reel's target length with the highest        quality clips available;    -   (2) When the system generates a team auto-reel or team composite        reel, the system attempts to ensure that each player is        represented in the reel in the most relevant clip for that        player, and that the balance of the target length of the reel is        filled with the most relevant clips of general interest to the        team;    -   (3) When the system generates a composite reel (multiple game        source material) for a single player, the system attempts to        ensure that at least one clip containing the subject player is        included from each event the author has selected, and then to        include clips containing the subject player regardless of source        distribution to reach the target duration of the reel.    -   (4) When the system selects multiple clips from within a class        of a specific imputed quality, the system may attempt to        distribute the selections from across the available temporal        range of source material by either a detailed method or a        shortcut method. The detailed method may use a weighted        cumulative density function to distribute the selected clips as        evenly as possible across the range of time of the game for        which clips are available by spacing the selected clips evenly        across the range of the distribution function. The shortcut        method may be randomly selected from among available clips.        Either of these is referred to as the temporal distribution        algorithm.    -   (5) When the system attempts to fulfill a content distribution        target, the system may select clips according to a hierarchy of        implied clip relevance, selecting clips from a first priority        pool (according to temporal distribution algorithm), then from a        second, etc., until either the source material is exhausted or        the content distribution target is met.

The pools of clips used for priority pools may be defined as:

-   -   “Personal Highlight” (P-HL) meaning a clip was marked with a        highlight click, potentially associated with the player's own        team, by a user who was not filming and who has a declared        interest in the subject player;    -   “Opposing Highlight” (O-HL) meaning the clip was marked as a        highlight associated with the team opposing the subject player's        team;    -   “General Highlight” (G-HL) meaning a clip was marked as a        highlight by a user who was either filming uploaded video at the        time they recorded the click or who applied a highlight click        via the web-based desktop app after the game;    -   “Personal Highlight with Recognition” (P-HL w/ R) meaning that        the clip is a personal highlight and that the clip was        identified by the recognition process as including the subject        player;    -   “Personal Highlight without Recognition” (P-HL w/o R) meaning        that the clip is a personal highlight but that the clip was not        identified by the recognition process as including the subject        player;    -   “Opposing Highlight with Recognition” (O-HL w/ R) meaning that        the clip is an opposing highlight and also that the clip was        identified by the recognition process as including the subject        player;    -   “General Highlight with Recognition” (G-HL w/ R) meaning that        the clip is a general highlight and also that the clip was        identified by the recognition process as including the subject        player;    -   “Recognition without Highlight” (R w/o HL) meaning that the clip        was identified by the Recognition Process as including the        subject player, but that the clip was not marked with a        highlight click;

When selecting content for a specific athlete and game relevance, thepriority pools may include, in order from highest to lowest:

-   -   (i) Personal highlight with recognition;    -   (ii) Personal highlight without recognition;    -   (iii) General highlight with recognition;    -   (iv) Opposing highlight with recognition; and    -   (v) Recognition without highlight.

As further described herein, the system and process may use thefollowing for creating the above-described highlight reels. In anembodiment, a set of priorities or weights for video clips may beestablished as:

-   -   1. Personal Highlight: If a video clip is selected or flagged by        a user associated with a player (e.g., player him or herself,        parent, relative, friend, etc.) to be a highlight and a jersey        number (i.e., indicia associated with the player) is identified        in the video clip, the highest weight or priority may be        assigned to the video clip.    -   2. Highlight including Player: If a video clip is selected by a        user not associated with the player to be a highlight and a        jersey number of the player is in the video clip, then a second        highest weight or priority may be assigned to the video clip.    -   3. General Highlight: If a video clip is selected by a user and        a jersey number is not identified in the video, then a third        highest weight or priority may be assigned to the video clip.    -   4. General Recognition: If a video clip is not selected to be a        highlight by any user, then if a jersey number of a user or        player of whom the highlight video is featuring is identified,        then a fourth highest weight or priority may be assigned to the        video clip.    -   5. No Highlight: If a video clip is not selected by any users to        be a highlight and a jersey number of a player on which the        highlight video is featuring is not identified, then the lowest        or no priority may be assigned to the video clip.

It should be understood that the above priorities or weights areillustrative and that additional and/or alternative priorities orweights may be assigned to each video clip. It should also be understoodthat the selection of the video clips to be highlights may be made basedon automatic identification of an action occurring in a video clip, asfurther described herein. For example, if an identification of a playercarrying a ball across a goal line or hitting a ball is made, then thatvideo clip including that action may be flagged as being a highlight andassigned a highest priority. TABLE I below provides an illustration ofsetting priorities for video clips to include in a highlight video orreel according to the five priorities provided above. Ranking the videoclips may be performed based on the priorities that are determined. Inan embodiment, the rankings may be made by accumulating the prioritiesand determining an average or most popular video clip deemed to be ahighlight. The video clips may thereafter be populated into a highlightvideo based on the rankings, time-of-video during an event, length ofvideo, and/or otherwise.

TABLE I Video Clip Priorities for Individual Highlight Video HighlightVideo Clip ID Player ID Identified? Flag User ID Related PriorityTXG8G7T2.37 5 YES YES Bob12 YES 1 TXG8G7T4.48 5 YES YES Steve2 NO 2TXG8G7T5.24 5 NO YES Bob12 YES 3 TXG8G7T8.15 5 YES NO Bob12 YES 4TXG8G7T10.12 5 NO NO Bob12 YES —

For team highlight videos, the goal is to produce a video inclusive ofgeneral highlights during the game irrespective of particular playerswho are in the video and include highlight video clips as established,if possible, by the player or someone associated with the player (i.e.,video clips identified as priority 1). TABLE II below provides anexample set of video clips and associated priorities as determined in asimilar manner as TABLE I. However, to illustrate how a team highlightvideo is produced, players on a team may have the following example setof indicia or numbers on player jerseys: {5, 18, 27, 32, 38}.

TABLE II Video Clip Priorities for Team Highlight Video Highlight VideoClip ID Player ID Identified? Flag User ID Related Priority TXG8G7T2.375 YES YES Bob12 YES 1 TXG8G7T4.48 27 YES YES Steve2 YES 1 TXG8G7T5.24 18YES NO Steve12 YES 3 TXG8G7T8.15 5 YES YES Bob12 NO 2 TXG8G7T10.12 27 NONO Bob12 YES — TXG8G7T14.10 32 YES YES Tom7 YES 1 TXG8G7T14.38 38 YESYES Lisa2 YES 1

To enable an automated or semi-automated process for producing ahighlight video, the information in TABLES I and II may be formedthrough the use of a user interface (e.g., on a mobile device userinterface (during or after recording) or desktop user interface) onwhich users, including players, coaches, parents, fans, or otherwise,may use to flag video content in video clips that are worthy of being ina highlight video. FIGS. 31-37 are illustrative user interfaces thatusers may use to identify players and highlight the video clips. Theuser may also edit (e.g., clip) the video clips. In an embodiment, anautomated image processing system may be executed to identify highlightswhen an action is performed by a player, coach, referee, spectator, orotherwise, and may form a video clip that buffers the action (e.g.,goal). In an embodiment, the system may be configured to start at alogical beginning of a play, such as prior to a snap if the play is atouchdown during a football game. If a highlight is automaticallydetermined, then the video clip may be set to a priority 3. If someonewho is not associated with a player in the video clip automaticallydetermined to be a priority 3 indicates that the video clip should be inthe highlight video, then the priority of the video clip may be set to apriority 2. If a user who knows a player in the video clip that isautomatically determined to be a priority 3 flags the video clip to be ahighlight, then the priority may be set to a priority 1. In the eventthat highlight clicks are used to identify highlights, then timestamps,either actual or relative to game time, may be included in the tables tofurther assist the system to automatically generate the highlight video.

After the video clips are prioritized, then the video clips may beranked using the prioritizations of the video clips. Video clips may beranked initially by the priority values. If length of the highlightvideo is limited to a certain length, then a process for maximizing thelength of the highlight video based on time of each of the video clips.An optimization process may be used to select videos of the samepriority, starting with priority 1, that can best fit within theallotted time. If length of time is not a limitation, then each of thevideo clips that have been identified as highlight video clips may beincluded in the highlight video. In an embodiment, the video clips maybe ordered in time sequence from beginning to end of an event, aspreviously described. If highlights with particular events are to beincluded as optionally designated by a user clicking a highlight pointin time while capturing the video or afterwards, as previouslydescribed, the tags, such as special team highlights, fumbles,turnovers, scoring plays, or otherwise, may be included in the highlightvideo.

With regard to FIG. 31 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3100 for viewing, editing, and selecting videos is shown. The userinterface 3100 may include a “Create AutoReel” soft-button 3102 thatallows a user to automatically create a highlight video. In creating thehighlight video, as previously described, two different types ofhighlight videos may be created, a “Player Reel” and a “Team Reel.” Inresponse to a user selecting the soft-button 3102, the user interface3102 may transition to user interface 3200 of FIG. 32 .

With regard to FIG. 32 , the user interface 3102 may include twosoft-buttons, a “Player AutoReel” soft-button 3202 or a “Team AutoReel”soft-button 3204. Selection of the soft-button 3202 may cause orinitiate an automatic or semi-automatic creation of a player highlightvideo to be generated based on an algorithm that prioritizes and/orweights video clips that have been identified by one or more users,automatic identification of an indicia on a player jersey, automaticidentification of an action performed by one or more people in the videoclips, and so on. Selection of the soft-button 3204 may cause anautomatic or semi-automatic creation of a team highlight video to begenerated based on an algorithm that prioritizes and/or weights videoclips that have been identified by one or more users, automaticidentification of indicia on each players' jersey listed to be includedin the team highlight video, automatic identification of an actionperformed by one or more people in the video clips, and so on.

With regard to FIG. 33 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3300 that lists selectable teams 3302 a-3302 n (collectively 3302), inthis case sports teams, on which a user or an associate of a user mayparticipate is shown. The user may have no particular affiliation withthe sports team, as well, and be a fan or simply someone who enjoyscreating highlight videos. The selectable events 3302 may contain videoclips that may have been captured by one or more sources, such asdifferent spectators (e.g., parents), who attended the event. Uniformnumbers 3304 a-3304 n (collectively 3304) of the user may be listed witheach of the respective teams 3302. In response to a user selecting ateam, such as the “2017-18 Briarcliff Basketball 8th boys” team 3302 a,the user may be presented with each game that the team played.

With regard to FIG. 34 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3400 showing a listing of games 3402 a-3402 n (collectively 3402) fromwhich the user may select using selection soft-buttons 3404 a-3404 n isshown. In this case, the user has selected a game “12/17/17 vs.Scarsdale” game 3402T More than one game may also be selected andhighlight video clips may be selected from the one or more games 3402.It should be understood that the video clips may be edited such thatportions of the video clips may ultimately be included in the highlightvideo.

With regard to FIG. 35 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3500 inclusive of video clips from the selected game(s) from FIG. 34 isshown. In this case, a single game was selected so video clip(s) 3502a-3502 n (collectively 3502) associated with the selected game may bedisplayed. The user may also be able to add images and/or video clipsthat may be selected and/or edited by using editing tools. As previouslydescribed, the editing may be performed in an automated manner byidentifying a first time and a last time in a video at which an indicia(e.g., uniform number) associated with a player is captured.Alternatively, a player identifier process may be utilized to identifyan indicia associated with a player and then process may go forward andbackward in the video to track the user so as to capture times that theuser is in the video clip, but the indicia of the player is not visibleto the camera.

The user interface 3500 includes a number of different user interfaceelements, including a title soft-button 3504 that enables a user tochange the title of the highlight video. A “change” soft-button 3506that enables a user to select a different audio track that plays behindthe highlight video. An “Add Image” soft-button 3508 may enable a userto upload a still image or photograph, and an “Add Clip” soft-button3510 may enable a user to select a video clip to upload for use inadding to the highlight video. Once added, each video clip 3502 may beedited by the user selecting an “Edit” button 3512 and removed by theuser selecting a “remove” soft-button 3514. The user may edit the videousing any conventional video editing tool, as understood in the art. Inan embodiment, the editing tools may enable the user to select a toolthat causes an identification of one or more indicia on player uniforms(e.g., identify when the user's uniform number is visible at the sametime as another uniform number, such as an opponent, identify when theuser's uniform number is visible during an event, such as a touchdown,identify when the user's uniform number is within a certain distance ofan object, such as a ball, etc.).

With regard to FIG. 36 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3600 that lists a set of highlight videos 3602 is shown. The list ofhighlight videos 3602 may include (i) individual highlight videos thatfeature an individual player or actor or (ii) team highlight videos thatfeature each player or actor who participated in one or more events. Thelist of highlight video 3602 shown includes a single event, in this casea basketball game, in which the user participated. It should beunderstood that multiple highlight videos may be shown in the list ofhighlight videos 3602. An indicia 3604, in this case in uniform number“5,” may be associated with each the highlight video 3602 to indicatethat the highlight video focused on a particular player. It should beunderstood that additional highlight videos that feature differentplayers may also be provided in the list of highlight videos 3602. If ateam highlight video were made, an entire list of players (e.g.,multiple uniform numbers) who participated in the game or season may beassociated with each video clip or another indicia, such as “T” forteam, may be shown in association with a team highlight video. A list ofuniform numbers may be stored and used by an algorithm to ensure thateach player associated with the uniform numbers is included in the teamhighlight video. In response to the user selecting a highlight video,video clips that are included as part of the highlight video may bepresented to the user, as shown in FIG. 37 .

With regard to FIG. 37 , a screenshot of an illustrative user interface3700 inclusive of video clips 3702 a-3702 n (collectively 3702) isshown. The video clips 3702 that were selected as being highlights usingan algorithm that may automatically select from a set of video clipsbased on priorities, as further described herein. The video clips may beorganized in chronological order during the event, in this case abasketball game, as identified in timestamps 3704 a-3704 n. A userinterface element 3706 a may be selectable by a user to expand to showinformation associated with the video clip 3702 a. The information mayinclude a name or identifier of a user who selected the video clip to bea highlight video clip, player(s) who were to be featured in the videoclip based on uniform number or otherwise, action to be captured in thevideo (e.g., touchdown), and so on. In an embodiment, a video clip maybe deleted from the highlight video. In an embodiment, deletion of avideo clip from the highlight video may result in the video clip notbeing added to future highlight videos or at least those associated witha particular player. Alternatively, a notification or identifier may bepresented to a user that indicates that the video clip had been deletedfrom another highlight video so as to enable the user to assess whetheror not to reconsider the video clip for future highlight videos.

One embodiment of identifying video to set as a highlight may includeautomatically identifying a particular action of a referee, umpire,player, coach, fans, or anyone else. The action may be sport specific,but not be an action that is part of playing the sport itself. Forexample, in a football game, the action may be made by referee who moveshis or her arms into a certain position machine-identifiable position,such as raising his or her arms to signify a touchdown or field goal,pointing an arm in a certain direction to signify a turnover, orrotating an arm to signify that the play, such as a catch, was completedin fair territory. For a car race, image processing may be used toidentify that a flagman raised a yellow or checkered flag. In the caseof a player, an identification of crossing a goal line and/or “spiking”a football may also be used as an identifying action to signify atouchdown, but such an action is not an action for playing the sport,but rather an action that signifies that an action while playing thesport was successfully completed. Still yet, if fans are captured in avideo and they clap, stand in unison with cheering, or perform someother highlight associated action, then a highlight may be identified.As is further described herein, an identification of a highlight pointin a video clip or segment may define a point around which apredetermined or requested buffer may be established before and afterthe point. As an example, in the event that the referee raises his orher hands to signify a touchdown, a buffer may be started a certainamount of time (e.g., 5 seconds) prior to the touchdown and certainamount of time, which may be the same or different than the time priorto the touchdown.

With regard to FIG. 38 , a flow diagram of an illustrative process 3800for generating a highlight video of an event from video clips is shown.The process 3800 may start at step 3802, where multiple video clips ofthe event may be collected. One or more users may be enabled to selectto view the video clips and to set an indicator to use to include anassociated video clip into the highlight video at step 3804. At step3806, the one or more indicators may be stored in association with therespective video clips. A user identifier may be stored in associationwith the one or more indicators to indicate who set the respectiveindicators at step 3808. The video clips may be ranked at step 3810based on the one or more indicators associated with the video clips anduser identifiers associated with the one or more indicators. Thehighlight video may be automatically generated based on the ranked videoclips at step 3812.

An automatic determination may be made as to whether a user who set anindicator associated with a video clip is associated with a participanton which the highlight video is featured. A participant featured in ahighlight video may be a player on a sports team. A user associated witha participant may be someone who is set up to be related to the playerin some acceptable way, such as the player him or herself, parent,relative, friend, or otherwise. The process may further includeautomatically determining whether an indicia associated with theparticipant on which the highlight video is being featured is viewablein the video clip.

An automatic determination as to whether an action within a set ofactions occurred in content of the video clips. An action identifier maybe set in association with a video clip if the action occurred withinthe video clip. The identifier indicative of the action being identifiedin association with at least one respective video clip may be set.Ranking the video clips may include ranking the video clips based ondetermining the action within a set of actions occurred.

An automatic determination as to whether a participant is in the one ormore video clips may be made, and an indicator indicative of theparticipant being in the video clip may be set. Ranking the video clipsmay further include ranking the video clips based on determining whetherthe participant is in the video clips. The automatic determination as towhether the users in the one more video clips may include determiningwhether an identifier or indicia (e.g., jersey number) on a playerjersey is identified in the one or more video clips.

A list of each player on a team and an identifier on a player jersey foreach of the players may be received (e.g., a coach may submit eachplayer who starts, each player on the team, each player who played in agame, etc.). At least one video clip in which each player is includedmay be automatically identified. Ranking the video clips may includeranking the video clips such that each player in the list is included inat least one video clip in the highlight video. That is, even if a videoclip of a first player is ranked higher than a video clip of a secondplayer, if the second player is only visible in one video clip, thenthat video clip with the second player may be ranked higher than thevideo clip that includes the first player. In an embodiment, a length oftime for the highlight video to be made may be received. The automaticgeneration of the highlight video may include automatically selectingvideo clips that, when combined, fit within the length of time. Theranking may also include using content distribution, as previouslydescribed.

In response to determining that an action occurred in at least one videoclip, a start time and stop time may be set before and after a time atwhich the action is identified to have occurred in the video clip, aspreviously described. Determining that an action occurred may includeautomatically determining that a participant within the video clipperformed an action that is not part of a sport being played. Forexample, the action may be a touchdown dance to celebrate the occurrenceof a touchdown. Alternatively and/or additionally, a referee raisingboth arms to signify a touchdown may be used. Still yet, a standingovation by members of a crowd may be used to indicate that a highlightmay have occurred. In the event that a user performs a highlight click,as previously described, the process may use that click time and anyassociated information to define a highlight clip using a fixed startand stop time buffer or automatically identify a start and end time of aplay (e.g., at a lineup and when a goal or touchdown is scored).

More particularly, the creation of (i) a team auto-reel or teamcomposite reel or (ii) personal auto-reel or a personal composite reelmay be performed using the following processes.

Team Auto-Reel or Team Composite Reel

A Team Auto-Reel may have a Target Length (TL) of 1.00 minutes. A TeamComposite Reel may have a TL of 3.00 minutes. As previously described,team reels may have a content distribution target to ensure eachrecognized player is included at least once.

Select clips in priority order (P-HL w/ R, P-HL w/o R, G-HL w/ R, O-HLw/ R, R w/o HL) until each jersey that had any recognitions from theteam is represented, allowing that some clips may containrepresentations of multiple players on the team;

If the Reel is <TL, then add highlights in priority order (G-HL, P-HL,O-HL) until the reel is >TL or highlight clips are exhausted;

If the Reel is still <TL, then add R w/o HL until the reel is TL orrecognitions are exhausted.

Personal Auto-Reel

A Personal Auto-Reel may have a TL of 1.00 minimum. The PersonalAuto-Reel may have a Content Distribution Target to ensure that 50% ofthe duration is composed of clips that include the subject player.

Add clips in priority order (P-HL w/ R, P-HL w/o R, G-HL w/ R, O-HL w/R, R w/o HL) until >50% TL or eligible clips are exhausted;

If reel is <TL, add clips in priority order (G-HL, P-HL, O-HL) untilreel >TL or highlight clips are exhausted

Personal Composite Reel

A Personal Composite Reel may have a TL of 3.00 min. The PersonalComposite-Reel may have a Content Distribution Target to ensure that atleast one clip containing the subject player is included in the reelfrom each source game specified by the author. The Personal CompositeReel may have a second Content Distribution Target to ensure that atleast 50% of the duration is composed of clips containing the subjectplayer with the remaining content reflecting the most relevant clipsfrom the events in the aggregate.

Select one clip from each event, in priority order within that event(P-HL w/ R, P-HL w/o R, G-HL w/ R, O-HL w/ R, R w/o HL);

If reel <50% TL, add clips in priority order without regard to sourceevent (P-HL w/ R, P-HL w/o R, G-HL w/ R, O-HL w/ R, R w/o HL) until >50%TL or eligible clips are exhausted;

If reel <TL, add clips in priority order (G-HL, P-HL, O-HL) until >TL oreligible clips are exhausted;

If reel <TL, add Recognitions of any player until >TL or eligible clipsare exhausted.

Duplicate Suppression

In an embodiment, to avoid including duplicate content in any reel, eachtime a clip is selected to be included in the reel, all other candidateclips whose temporal span overlaps the selected clip may be removed fromthe candidate pool before the next clip is selected.

Order of Presentation

In an embodiment, after all clips have been selected into a reel tofulfill Content Distribution Targets and duration and quality goals,then clips may be ordered in time according to the timestamp of theactual content of the clip.

Tracking System

In accordance with the principles provided herein, the system mayprovide for tracking of individual players and use that tracking toenable a user to (i) create plays, (ii) recruit/draft players, and (iii)support gaming. In creating plays, a coach or other user may be providedwith tools to be able to run “what-if” scenarios of a player or a set ofplayers against an opposing team.

With reference FIG. 39 , an illustration of a field 3900 on whichplayers 3902 are rendered as Xs and Os based on three or more videorecording devices or video cameras 3904 a-3904 n (collectively 3904) maycapture video content (e.g., video clips or continuously captured video)of a game being played or other event. In an embodiment, video capturedby the video recording devices 3904 may be synchronized to one anotherusing a real-time clock or relative clock (e.g., game-time clock), andplayers captured within at least three video cameras 3904 may be trackedusing triangulation to provide for tracking purposes in two-dimensions(2D) or three-dimensions (3D), as understood in the art. Thetriangulating may include distance measurements from each of therespective video recording devices 3904 to the player(s), where themeasurements may be determined based on relative size, distancemeasuring device within the video recording devices 3904, focaldistance, or otherwise while recording or post-processing of the videocontent. Although the video recording devices 3904 are shown around thefield, it should be understood that the video recording devices 3904 maybe above the field or at any other angle relative to the field or event.That is, by using at least three video cameras 3904, the players 3902and objects within view of the video recording devices 3904 may betracked.

A tracking system may track the players based on indicia (e.g., jerseynumbers), thereby enabling a system to monitor and/or determine motionof one or more players during an event (e.g., soccer game). The trackingof the players may be converted into a coordinate system that may becharacterized or identified by a user or automatically, and a tag, suchas “penalty shot,” “passing play,” or otherwise, may be assigned toperformance of a player and/or team. Over time, a player may be trackedsuch that statistical analysis may be performed to determine variousmotions, successes, failures, strengths, weaknesses, habits, or anyother actions that may be identified by a machine in an automatic,semi-automatic, or manual manner. For example, a player who kicked apenalty shot multiple times throughout a season may be analyzed todetermine statistics of a location on a goal that the player tends tokick, such that an opposing player may be provided with statisticalinformation (e.g., player kicks to lower left 10% of the time, playerkicks to upper left 32% of the time, and so forth). In an embodiment, anopposing player, such as a goalie having his or her statisticalparameters (e.g., speed going left, speed going right, reach, percent oftime extends left upper, left lower, right upper, right lower, staysstationary, etc.), may be collected for later use in matching up tooffensive players on another team (e.g., within a video game).

In an embodiment, the video recording devices 3904 may be mobile devices(e.g., mobile phones), video cameras, or fixed-position cameras, such ascameras that may be mounted to a goalposts, stand, or otherwise, and thevideo recording devices 3904 may be identified as certain locationssurrounding a field, for example, thereby enabling relative position ofplayers 3902 being captured in the video to be tracked relative to thefield in performing an analysis. Distance relative to the field may beused for sizing purposes, but the video captured by the video recordingdevices 3904 may be used to identify an identifier (e.g., jersey number)on a player, and motion relative to the player as determined byidentifying the player in at least three videos captured by at leastthree corresponding video recording devices 3904 may be utilized foranalysis purposes, as described herein.

With regard to FIG. 40 , a block diagram of a set of software modules4000 that may be utilized in tracking and analyzing players captured byvideo recording devices are shown. The modules 4000 may include a playeridentification module 4002 in which a player may be identified by anumber on a jersey, for example. The module 4002 may be configured toidentify the player in multiple video clips captured by three morevideos, and synchronize those videos. Alternatively, a synchronizationmodule (not shown) may be configured to synchronize videos, aspreviously described. By synchronizing the modules, triangulation of theplayer(s) may be used to track movement or actions performed (e.g.,scoring basket) by the player.

A player tracking module 4004 may be configured to track movement of aplayer in multiple videos that have been synchronized. The module 4004may track the players whether or not a jersey number is identifiablethroughout an entire video. As previously described, the module 4004 maybe configured to identify that a player enters a video, and optionallyprovide a buffer prior to the player entering the video, to track theplayer while in the video, and optionally add a buffer after the playerexits the video in case the player returns to be within the video again.

The player tracker module 4004 may be configured to determine therelative position of the player from each of the video recordingdevices. A triangulation module 4005 may be part of or operation inconjunction with the player tracking module 4004. The triangulationmodule 4005 may be configured to triangulate the location of a playerrelative to three or more video recording devices that may capture aplayer in respective videos. In an embodiment, the triangulation module4005 may determine relative positions of the videos relative to oneanother so that distances of a player relative to each of the videos maybe determined, thereby providing for triangulation functionality todetermine actual or relative position on a field, for example. Inaddition to tracking players, objects, such as a ball (e.g., soccerball) may be tracked by the player tracking module 4004 in conjunctionwith the triangulation module 4005. The module may be configured togenerate player motion points and/or vectors and store that data to adata repository for use by other modules, as further described herein.The player motion points and/or vectors may be generated using thetriangulation from the videos captured by the video recording devices.

An action statistical module 4006 may be configured to determine actionsperformed by a player. For example, the action statistical module 4006may be configured to track sport-specific actions based on detection ofmovement of the player (e.g., location relative to a foul line orbasket/net) or input from a user who tags an action performed by aplayer in a specific video. In an embodiment, other video that capturedthe same player at the same time may correspondingly be tagged with thesame actions. Statistics may be generated for that action. For example,statistics may include speed, distance, actions (e.g., number of kicks,passes, baskets, etc.), or any other action that may be tracked in astatistical manner. For example, a player may be tracked in kickingpenalty shots, and a number of times the player successfully scores agoal when kicking penalty shots may be tracked. In an embodiment, inaddition to tracking the number of goals scored by a player kicking apenalty shot, specific locations in which the player kicks the ball whenmaking penalty shots may be track (e.g., upper left, upper center, upperright, lower left, lower center, lower right). The statistics generatedby the module 4006 may be stored for later use, as further describedherein.

A scenario generator module 4008 may utilize the tracking data producedby the player tracking module 4004 to enable a coach or other user togenerate game or other scenarios. For example, the scenarios may includegenerating plays and determining how well a player or multiple playersperform in those plays. In one specific example, a coach may utilize thetracking data to match a player (e.g., penalty shot kicker) againstanother player (e.g., goalie) in making penalty kicks. Other scenariosmay include matching a wide receiver up against a defensive back orsafety. In creating the scenarios, avatars (e.g., virtual players), Xsand Os, or any other representation of the players may be utilized. Thatis, the images produced by the scenario generator module 4008 may not bevideo, but rather graphical images (e.g., avatars, virtual players, Xsand Os, etc.) that represent movements of players that have historicallybeen captured and generated by one or both of the modules 4004. Itshould be understood that a wide variety of scenarios may be generatedby the module 4008. In an embodiment, the module 4008 may provide a userwith the ability to select from available players or and/or scenariossuch that a coach made use existing players from the database and inserthis or her players selected by the user into various positions in theplayers that are sport specific. For example, the sport may be lacrosse,soccer, football, basketball, etc., and the user may insert onestatistical information and/or specific tracking data of the playersproduced by the modules 4004 and 4006 to include player data for use invarious scenarios to determine how well his or her players perform.

Such a system may help the coach or user define plays and determinewhich players may best be suited for specific plays. In an embodiment,the system may have a data repository that includes data from opposingteams, such that the system may enable a user to generate a scenarioagainst a specific team, thereby being able to match up players againstdifferent players of another team. Again, the statistical informationgenerated by the action statistical module 4006 may be utilized for eachof the players.

A player modeling module 4012 may enable the data collected by theplayer tracking module 4004 and action statistical module 4006 to bemodeled. The modeling may be used to define players in differentcategories (e.g., offense, defense, scorer, goalie, fast, slow, agility,flexibility, reaction speed, bat speed, throwing accuracy, etc.) andassociate the player with different types of plays, scenarios, orotherwise. The player modeling module 4012 may further enable a coach,player, or other user to include player specific data, such as height,weight, body mass index (BMI), or otherwise, and use that informationfor recruiting/drafting. The module 4012 may enable a user to trackperformance over past games (e.g., over the past two or three seasons),and insert those players' statistics into new situations, such asdifferent plays or matchup against different defenders, for example. Theplayer information may be used for recruiting and/or drafting of playersto help rank players against other players who may also be placed intothe various situations. The module 4012 may work in conjunction with anyof the other modules, including the scenario generator module 4008 andplay generator module 4010.

A gaming module 4014 may enable a user to access any of the playertracking data generated by the player tracking module 4004 and/or actionstatistical module 4006, and use the data in a game, such as video gamethat includes the sport of which the player statistics have beengenerated. The video game may use the player's information and allow theplayer to see how well he or she plays against other players in thevideo game. It should be understood that the video game may enablestatistical information of one or more players to be utilized during thevideo game. For example, the statistical information of the player(s)may be applied to players of the same positions. The other players inthe video game may be professional athletes, kids in the same league(e.g., other kids on the team or on different teams in which statisticalinformation is stored in a data repository accessible by the videogame), computer-generated players with similar skill sets based onmodeling data produced by the player modeling module 4012, or otherwise.The gaming module 4014 may enable network gaming or non-networked gamingso that the player may play the game by him or herself by controllingthe represented player, against the computer, or against other people(e.g., friends), as understood in the art. In controlling therepresented player, the user may be limited to the actual statisticalinformation collected and applied to the represented player based onactual performance by the user. Control may be performed using a gamingcontroller in any form, as understood in the art. In an embodiment,rather than a user controlling the players, the system may be configuredto automatically execute plays based on the statistical informationgenerated for each of the players in the game. Because the player mayuse his or her statistics, interaction with the game may be moreinteresting to the player, and encourage the player to improve his orher skills in the real world so that his or her player (e.g., avatar) inthe game may be improved, as well.

One embodiment of a computer-implemented method may include receiving atleast three video clips of a sporting event, where each of the videoclips may (i) be simultaneously captured over at least a portion oftime, and (ii) include at least one common player wearing an indicia ona jersey that is distinguishing from indicia on other players. Trackinglocations of the at least one common player captured in the at leastthree video clips may be generated by triangulating distances of thecommon player(s) in the video clips. Statistical information of thecommon player(s) may be generated from the tracking locations. Thecommon player(s) may be represented on a graphical display. The commonplayer(s) may be controlled by applying at least one of the trackinglocations and statistical information of the common player(s).

A user may be enabled to select from multiple plays in which therepresented common player(s) may be included to determine how well therepresented common player(s) perform. In an embodiment, the representedat least one common player may be an avatar. The videos including atleast one common player may be synchronized. A user may be enabled toselect at least one opposing player to be represented on the graphicaldisplay in which the common player(s) is included. The user may beenabled to control the represented common player(s), where control ofthe represented common player(s) is limited to the generated statisticalinformation associated with each of the respective common player(s).

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the steps of the various embodiments must be performed inthe order presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the artthe steps in the foregoing embodiments may be performed in any order.Words such as “then,” “next,” etc. are not intended to limit the orderof the steps; these words are simply used to guide the reader throughthe description of the methods. Although process flow diagrams maydescribe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operationsmay be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order ofthe operations may be rearranged. A process may correspond to a method,a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedhere may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentinvention.

Embodiments implemented in computer software may be implemented insoftware, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware descriptionlanguages, or any combination thereof. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement these systems and methods is not limiting the invention. Thus,the operation and behavior of the systems and methods were describedwithout reference to the specific software code being understood thatsoftware and control hardware can be designed to implement the systemsand methods based on the description here.

When implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or moreinstructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable orprocessor-readable storage medium. The steps of a method or algorithmdisclosed here may be embodied in a processor-executable software modulewhich may reside on a computer-readable or processor-readable storagemedium. A non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable mediaincludes both computer storage media and tangible storage media thatfacilitate transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Anon-transitory processor-readable storage media may be any availablemedia that may be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such non-transitory processor-readable media may compriseRAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible storagemedium that may be used to store desired program code in the form ofinstructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a computeror processor. Disk and disc, as used here, include compact disc (CD),laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, andBlu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, whilediscs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.Additionally, the operations of a method or algorithm may reside as oneor any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on anon-transitory processor-readable medium and/or computer-readablemedium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

When implemented in hardware, the functionality may be implementedwithin the circuitry of a wireless signal processing circuit that may besuitable for use in a wireless receiver or mobile device. Such awireless signal processing circuit may include circuits foraccomplishing the signal measuring and calculating steps described inthe various embodiments.

The hardware used to implement the various illustrative logics, logicalblocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purposeprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) orother programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic,discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed toperform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor maybe a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor may be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices,e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration. Alternatively, some steps ormethods may be performed by circuitry that is specific to a givenfunction.

Any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using thearticles “a,” “an” or “the,” is not to be construed as limiting theelement to the singular.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and theprinciples and novel features disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating a sports video, said methodcomprising: receiving, by a processing unit, video of an event inclusiveof players with unique identifiers on their respective uniforms;identifying, by the processing unit, at least one unique identifierassociated with at least a first player in the video; defining, by theprocessing unit, start times of a plurality of video segments from thevideo of the event at an initial time that the at least one uniqueidentifier has been identified in each of the plurality of videosegments; determining until such time has passed that, beginning fromthe start times of each of the plurality of the video segments, acertain number of frames or seconds have passed without the at least oneunique identifier being identified in the video by the processing unit;in response to the determination that the certain number of frames orseconds have passed, defining relative to respective start times, by theprocessing unit, a stop time in each of the plurality of video segmentsat a previous time that the first player associated with the at leastone unique identifier was identified in respective video segments; andcausing, by the processing unit, video segments inclusive of the atleast one unique identifier to be individually available for replay. 2.The method according to claim 1, further comprising enabling, by theprocessing unit, a user to assemble select video segments into acomposite video.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein receivingvideo of the event includes receiving video of the event from aplurality of video capture devices at the sporting event.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 3, further comprising: identifying, by the processingunit, video segments from video from the plurality of video capturedevices in which at least the first player associated with the at leastone unique identifier is included; and distributing the video segmentswith the at least one unique identifier to a user of one of the videocapture devices in response to a request from the user.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: enabling, by the processingunit, a user to view the plurality of video segments; and in response toreceiving one or more hashtags from the user that associate the one ormore hashtags with one or more of the plurality of video segments,storing the one or more hashtags in association with respective videosegments, the hashtags being indicative of respective events that occurin the associated video segments.
 6. The method according to claim 5,further comprising enabling a user to request video segments having oneor more hashtags associated therewith.
 7. The method according to claim6, further comprising generating a composite video that includes atleast a portion of video segments having the requested one or morehashtags.
 8. The method according to claim 1, comprising generating acomposite video that includes video segments inclusive of the at leastone unique identifier; uploading the composite video to a distributedledger system or marketplace; and providing instructions for creating anon-fungible token of the composite video.
 9. The method according toclaim 1, wherein receiving the video includes receiving the video invideo segments while the video is being captured until the video beingcaptured is complete, and stitching successive video segments together,and wherein the at least one unique identifier is identified whilereceiving the video in segments.
 10. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: receiving, by the processing unit, at least onehashtag associated with the plurality of video segments; andidentifying, by the processing unit, one or more video segmentsassociated with the received hashtag; and communicating, via acommunications network, the identified one or more video segmentsassociated with the received hashtag to a user for viewing.
 11. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising in response todetermining a start time of a video segment, tracking a playerassociated with the unique identifier, thereby identifying entiresegments during which a player associated with the unique identifier isin the video segment.
 12. The method according to claim 1, whereindefining start times and stop times at respective initial times andfinal times includes defining start times and stop times inclusive of abuffer time prior to and after the respective start and stop times. 13.A method for generating video content, said method comprising:receiving, by a processing unit, a plurality of video content segmentsof an event from a plurality of video capture devices, the plurality ofvideo capture devices operating at the event to crowd source videocontent; identifying, by the processing unit, a player in one or more ofthe video content segments; defining, by the processing unit, a starttime in the one or more video content segments at an initial time thatthe player is identified in the one or more video content segments;determining until such time that, beginning from the start time in theone or more video content segments, a certain number of frames orseconds have passed without the player being identified in the one ormore content segments; in response to the determination that a certainnumber of frames or seconds have passed, defining, by the processingunit, a stop time in the one or more video content segments at a timethat the player was last identified in a respective video contentsegment; extracting, by the processing unit, at least a portion of videocontent from the start time to the stop time, the extracted videoinclusive of the identified player; and enabling, by the processingunit, at least a portion of the extracted video content segments withthe player to be available for viewing by a user.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein identifying the player includesidentifying an identifier and colors displayed on a uniform of theplayer.
 15. The method according to claim 13, further comprisingreceiving a query inclusive of a hashtag associated with one or more ofthe extracted video content segments.
 16. The method according to claim13, further comprising: identifying a standard object within the videocontent; and determining a scaling in the video content based on a sizeof the standard object; and determining a position of the playerrelative to the standard object within the video content.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 13, further comprising: receiving a search requestinclusive of a search parameter inclusive of a hashtag; identifyingvideo content in which the player is captured and the hashtag isassociated; and providing the identified video content in response tothe search request.
 18. The method according to claim 13, furthercomprising associating at least one hashtag with the extracted videocontent segments, the association enabling identification of theextracted video content segments by a search engine.
 19. The methodaccording to claim 13, further comprising generating a composite videothat includes the extracted video content from the start time to thestop time.
 20. The method according to claim 19, comprising uploadingthe composite video to a distributed ledger system or marketplace andproviding instructions for creating a non-fungible token of thecomposite video.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein providinginstructions comprises receiving one or more hashtags from the user thatassociate the one or more hashtags with the one or more video contentsegments, storing the one or more hashtags in association withrespective video content segments, the hashtags being indicative ofrespective events that occur in the associated video content segments,and providing the one or more hashtags to the distributed ledger systemor marketplace for creating the non-fungible token of the compositevideo.